


Sonic Plus One

by softsylvie



Category: Sonic the Hedgehog (Video Games), Sonic the Hedgehog - All Media Types
Genre: a biiit of padding with headcanon, novelization of Sonic 2 for Game Gear, sonic 2 game gear, sonic and tails meeting fic
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-12-17
Updated: 2019-01-13
Packaged: 2019-02-15 19:00:56
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 13
Words: 69,114
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13037427
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/softsylvie/pseuds/softsylvie
Summary: After destroying the Final Base on South Island, Sonic's next adventure brings him to West Side Island, where rumor has it that Robotnik has sinister plans lying in wait.  Along the way of his investigation, he meets an outcast fox kit named Tails, who seems remarkably set on becoming a hero just like him.But when Robotnik comes out of hiding and drags Tails into the conflict, Sonic is left with no choice but to gather the emeralds for the world's worst enemy.  A novelization of Sonic 2, Game Gear version!





	1. A New Start

**Author's Note:**

> Hello, and thanks for reading!
> 
> I suppose this note's just for posterity, to clarify that while this fanfic is indeed set in the 'classic game' verse, there IS a bit of headcanon padding here and there, most of which are just my attempts at explaining mechanics and how things are the way they are in the game's universe. So yeah, take that as you will. :U 
> 
> I also just want to toss in that this is, in a way, a bit of an homage to JudasFM, one of my favorite Sonic fanfic writers from way back in the day! C: Reading their fanfiction is what got me back into the Sonic fandom, after all, so just giving credit where it's due! 
> 
> That said, thanks again for reading! All attention and concrit appreciated!

The Sea Fox arrowed smoothly through the waves, gliding in on the high tide. Beaming, the rather young captain coasted her along until he’d found the tiny concrete alcove, and the half rotted dock that was hanging off of it like a broken arm atop the water. It had once been a little swimming and fishing spot for the local zone children, before the southeastern beach had finally opened to the public about ten years or so back. These days, it was lucky to see the occasional family of feral ducks passing through.

In a way, he supposed it was _his_ harbor, now. The little cove was hidden well from the main coastal trail by a hedge of weeds, wild briars and twisted shrubs; so overgrown that nobody else really bothered with it anymore. But a small fox by the name of Miles Prower, preferably Tails, knew better than to judge things by their appearance. He’d known it with the alcove, he’d known it with the Sea Fox, and… well, truth be known, he may have known a thing or two about being judged by looks. 

The pair of tails draped about his legs inside the Sea Fox had found him judged more times than he could count. 

_“Freak!”_

_“Mutant!”_

_“Ewww, don’t go near him! You’re gonna get diseased an’ grow another head or something!”_

And if it wasn’t his tails, then it was his size. 

_“You think a little shrimp like you can take me? Go on, then, freak! Take a swing!”_

If they felt like digging a bit deeper, then it was his age. Tails reckoned that even now, the Kukku Army struggled to understand just how the efforts of their militia on Cocoa Island had been thwarted by a five year old.

Smiling, the tiny fox clambered up onto the dock. With a tiny hoop of rope, he tied the Sea Fox to her mooring. 

“Jus’ goes to show ya, li’l guys can be strong, too,” Tails said to no one in particular. “Huh, Sea Fox? Yeah, we’re pretty tough guys, all right!” 

The Sea Fox rocked lightly and in silence on a sighing wave.

It would have been nice if she could talk back, for once. 

Tails wasn’t about to let that get him down, as he perched on the edge of the dock and watched the sunset sparkle red and black across the sea. Cocoa Island would be safe. The Flickies had promised him that they would keep watch, send someone along if those Kukku creeps decided to rattle the cages again. He could rest easy enough back in Emerald Hill Zone. 

“Long as they don’t go makin’ trouble again,” he muttered, swinging his legs over the edge. He glanced over at the Sea Fox. “But, but then bad guys always gotta make trouble, huh? Don’t they?” 

A wave sprawled against her side, but still the Sea Fox said nothing. Tails decided that this was affirmation on her part and took it for what it was. It only made sense, after all. If bad guys didn’t make trouble, then good guys would have to sit at home, bored with nothing to do, and that certainly wasn’t the way it was done. 

He _had_ missed sitting at his home here, though, on West Side Island. As nice as the Flickies were, they were still ferals that flew to their own roosts at the end of the day. They could chirp at him in greeting, they could squeak to beg a few bites of his meals off of him, and they could squall when the rain picked up, but not much else. Tails missed actual conversation. 

Granted, the conversations he tended to make here didn’t qualify as _friendly,_ but still, beggars couldn’t be choosers. 

As the sun vanished to its last wink over the edge of the sea, the fox kit finally stood. He beheld the coming dark with a huge pair of blue eyes that here and now, he liked to imagine looked a little older than the rest of him. 

“I gotta go, Sea Fox,” Tails said to the little submarine below. “’Cause if I don’t pick out a good tree soon then somethin’ else is gonna call dibs on it an’ then I’m gonna have to head farther out. I’m gonna come right back tomorrow, though, so you gotta stay here! Okay? You gotta stay here!” Tails had learned very early on in his days alone that spending the night low to the ground wasn’t a good idea. As it happened, Emerald Hill had its share of bears and wildcats that were feral and, more to the point, hungry. 

The Sea Fox didn’t protest, at least.

Nodding his approval, Tails turned on his heel and started to whirl his tails into action. As soon as he was high up enough for the wind to whistle over his fur, he couldn’t quite resist fanning out his arms and kicking his feet. He was quite happy to find that his strength had grown since Cocoa Island; he could fly higher for longer, maybe even a little faster! 

_If I could’a just kep’ those emeralds a little longer…_

Eventually, he found a suitable enough perch on the upper fork of a banana tree. Perfect, really! High up, and the leaves made for nice cover. Fishing out what was left of that little mooring rope, Tails tied one end to a stiff looking branch and the other to his ankle, the better to not start his next day with a long drop and a goose egg between his ears. Tails had also learned, early on in his days alone, that he tended to roll over a lot if he was getting too comfortable. 

Tails had learned a whole mess of things the hard way in his days alone.

But for once, he didn’t dream of his days alone when he finally curled up in a rough nest of his tails and nodded off, just as the last red glimmer of sunset vanished into the first shadows of night.

 

_“You call that flying, mon amie? Hoh, hoh, hoh! You will having to be doing better than that to catch me!”_

_Tails narrowed his eyes and whirled his namesakes harder. The wind gusted through the rocky canyon, and it nearly overbalanced him until he flailed out an arm to catch himself. He could do this, though. He had to. Every Flickie that had flown wailing from the cinders of Poloy Forest was counting on him, now._

_A few feet above, the larger bird glared down a very sharp looking beak at him. Another soldier of the Kukku Army, no doubt. Sleek green feathers, angry looking eyes, white swoops of armor around his neck and down the breadth of his chest. Tails would have privately added a jerk personality to boot, but his faction made that a bit of a given._

_“Come, mon renardeau! Little flying devil! Show me what you can do!”_

_“I’m gonna show ya more than that, you… you big…!” The kit fished blindly for the right words and came up empty. “Big dummy chickenbrain!”_

_To his credit, Tails didn’t exactly make a regular practice out of insulting people._

_The soldier smiled wanly until those angry eyes fell into slits. “Hoh, hoh! I do hope your flying is better than your way with words.”_

_“It is! Shut up!”_

_“Ah, I am being so sure!”_

_Tails caught the next gust and rocketed up the mouth of a wind carven tunnel between a hanging plateau and the canyon wall. This was gonna be a squeeze, but sometimes being small had its advantages. Balling himself up tight, tucking his legs up, he made it through the narrow opening on the other side no problem. He jogged his feet along the canyon wall and launched himself backward into a flying kick, much to the bewilderment of the soldier hovering in wait for him._

_“Better start flyin’, bird brain,” Tails said with the tiniest hint of a smile. “’Cause if I catch ya, then I’m gonna knock ya around good!”_

_The soldier squawked indignantly as he darted higher up, barely avoiding the attack. “Do not be getting so cocky, mon renardeau! I am still having many tricks to be playing ze peek-a-boo up my sleeve!”_

_“My name’s not Renardoo, it’s Tails,” Tails snapped. “An’ you don’t even have any sleeves, you dumb chickenhead!”_

_He surged up to match the soldier’s pace just as he vanished into the trees looming near the lip of the canyon. Tails wasn’t giving up, though. There was too much at risk, and if Sonic wasn’t even here on the island, what could the hero be expected to do? It was the driving crux of his decision to stop all this himself; what Sonic would do, he would have to do in the hedgehog’s stead. Being scared wouldn’t save the Flickies and it wouldn’t save his parents’ island._

_“Wake up, you little weirdo,” the soldier spat down at him before he zipped away in a jade flash._

_Tails faltered in midair, puzzled. “Huh?”_

_“Wake up! Wake up!”_

 

“Wake up, you little weirdo!!” 

“C’mon, throw somethin’ else at him! Maybe we’ll get to watch him hit the ground!” 

“Nah. He probably tied himself up again. Or at least he did if the little idiot’s got any brains in him.”

Tails didn’t have much time to react until he sprang awake, yelping at the flashing sting over his left eye. His first thought was that perhaps he’d nestled over a Cocoa hornet’s nest; they didn’t very much like neighbors and had quite the pointed way of showing it. When he heard the ring of laughter below, he pieced together what had happened pretty quickly. Someone down there had nice aim with a rock.

Blearily, Tails opened his right eye to the pearly light of a clear morning. “Ow…” He rubbed at the new ache as it pulsed beneath his fingers. It was going to be a bruise by the afternoon, but at least his fur would serve to hide it. “What…? Huh?” 

At the foot of the banana tree, three bigger zone kids were sneering up at him with devilish grins. A chestnut colored monkey, a white sloth, and a chubby tiger cub, all three of which were easily twice his size and at least four or five years older, if Tails’ memory served him right. The monkey, aptly named Arms, was the ostensive little deadeye if the way he was tossing another pebble up and down on his palm meant anything.

“There he is, he’s with us now, ladies and gents!” Arms greeted him with mock sweetness. “Hey, weirdo! Make yourself useful while you’re up there and give us our throwing disk back!”

“Wha…?” After a bit of blinking himself awake and some scrounging, Tails finally found the courage to clench up his fists and glare down at them. “Hey, what’d you do that, for? That really hurt!” 

All three kids broke into laughter. “That _hurrrrt,_ that really _hurrrrrt,_ ” the sloth whined in a high voice, rubbing at the scraggly fur on his head with a claw. “That _hurrrrt,_ you _guuuuuys!_ ”

“Sorry, we didn’t think you’d feel it if we hit ya in the noggin,” the tiger added, snickering.

Arms shook his head impatiently. “What’re ya, deaf, now? I told ya to give us back our disk, you little mutant! It’s right there, unless you’re goin’ blind, too!”

“Probably,” the tiger cub mumbled. “It’s that _disease_ he’s got.”

Tails chanced a look to where the monkey was pointing, and saw for himself that a red throwing disk had snagged itself in the long leaves of his tree. He’d bet rings to doughnuts that it hadn’t been an accident. One of their favorite ways to kill a Saturday morning was to find some reason to harass him, no matter how well he thought he’d hid himself. 

He sighed, rustling through the foliage to make a grab for the disk. The sooner he threw it back to them, the sooner they’d go, if they decided that they’d had their fun with him for the day. 

When another rock pelted him on the elbow, he drew back so hard that he nearly lost his bearings. 

The kids below cackled and hooted. “Oh, that’s ten points,” the tiger cub declared. “That’s ten points for my main man, Arms! And the crowd goes wild!” 

“ _Haaaaahhhh!_ ” The sloth cried softly into his claws, providing the crowd’s thunderous approval. “Oh, they’re goin’ wild! It’s a new world record! He’s still the world champ! Arms will surely go down in history for this!” 

Arms held up his hands, basking in the pretend glory. “Thank you, thank you! This next shot, I’m gonna dedicate to my ma, who always believed in me!” 

Tails ducked just in time to hear the whiz of another rock flitting over his ear. By this point, he’d decided to simply unhitch himself and take off, it was the safest option he had. If they knocked him off-balance, they’d have their entire Saturday morning dangling right there in front of them until he could get himself free. 

With a little scrambling he managed to undo the knot around his ankle in record time, but not before Arms managed a couple more good shots on him. Tails could only figure that he’d gotten in some practice since last time; his right shoulder and left tail could vouch for it. 

“Oh, oh look! Look! He’s taking off!” the sloth cried, pointing him out as the fox sent his tails spinning. “He’s flying, look at him! What a _freak!_ What a total _freak!_ ”

“What a turn of events,” the tiger cub continued in his pseudo-announcer voice. “The little mutant is retreating, ladies and gentlemen! This may be the end of the game! Will our hero Arms be up for the challenge?” 

“Sweet!” Arms crouched low on his haunches and dug eagerly for his next rock. “I need a moving target, man!”

The next rock flared past Tails’ right leg in a decided arc. In that moment, he wanted to stare them down with the hard and angry eyes of the soldier in the canyon. He wanted to glare down his nose at them, to dart down and show them just what the unsung hero of Cocoa Island had in him, to make them sorry they’d ever decided that he was their plaything to pass another quiet morning in the Emerald Hill Zone. He wanted to make them sorry, to make them so sorry. 

He veered off instead, flying with every ounce of new strength he’d found since the island. He flew as far and fast as his tails would take him. 

It was a bit hard to intimidate anyone when you were fighting back tears.


	2. A Hero's Arrival

Stealing was not a particularly new skill to Tails. 

He wasn’t _proud_ of this fact, but need wasn’t all that often impressed by morals when hunger really set in.  When it sliced through your gut like garrote wire, left you limp by what felt like a fist curled in your chest, the conscience became oddly fleeting.  This was yet another hard lesson in Tails’ early days alone. 

There _were_ times he managed to find a few rings scattered about the wild stretches of Emerald Hill Zone.  He _had_ intended to pay with them, but Arms and his gang had a funny sense of timing for that sort of thing and an even funnier sense of how friendship worked.  “Let’s just say it’s a ‘buddy tax’ and call it a day.  This is what you gotta pay _us_ for putting up with _you,_ you little runt,” Arms had kindly informed him, while making a barefaced show of cracking his knuckles.  “Pay up, or _pay up._   Your choice.”

Even back then, Tails had known that Arms was slapping a more sinister meaning on one of those forms of payment.

So, past experience and hunger now found the kit crouched in a little alleyway with a patchy old rucksack on the southwest side of town.  It was still fairly early, about half past nine o’clock.  Tails could hear his stomach snarling in fresh torment.  The end of the breakfast rush found the air fat with smells; sausage, eggs, bacon, maple syrup, biscuits, some of that spicy gravy from the little deli, Tails had been lucky to find a half-eaten biscuit smothered in the stuff one day in the garbage bin. 

Today, he wouldn’t have to dig around in the bins if he timed it just right.  Across the street, through a weak trickle of work-bound people, Tails could see others getting up from tables outside a little local diner.  It was a mild but warm morning, as close to an autumn chill as Emerald Hill was ever going to get, and it was just pleasant enough for a lucky few to enjoy breakfast out on the diner’s front patio. 

He dared a look around the red brick corner of the alley, and his mouth watered.  People were leaving behind unfinished pancakes, abandoning their sausage links and muffins and hash browns.  A young jaguar left behind a plate of almost untouched scrambled eggs, having taken favor to the steak that came with them.  Tails stood entranced nearly all morning before he remembered where all these riches might end up if he didn’t hurry. 

Padding low to the ground, Tails bustled through the edge of the crowd.  A few gave him curious looks, others rolled their eyes and went about their way.  Once he was free of them, he set his tails spinning to fly the rest of the way across the avenue. 

It was a smorgasbord, and once he was in the air, it was all fair game.

Tails opened the mouth of his rucksack and started swinging, sliding and tossing food in.  Whatever he could grab, whatever he could stuff in, anything and everything in front of him.  To say he went about it with the zeal of a starving animal would have been a bit redundant.  He dove on the pancakes first – because _pancakes,_ when was the last time he’d even had _pancakes –_ before he jumped the scrambled eggs.  He flew from one table to the next, fluttering like a hummingbird working at gunpoint.

“Hey!!  **_HEY!!_** DOGGONE IT, NOT _THIS_ AGAIN!!” 

The door was flung open with a furious jangle of bells.  Through the gleam of the sun against the diner’s windows, Tails could see the old warthog stomping out, round belly and greasy apron first.  Old Man Snout, as the other kids called him when he was out of earshot. 

And he didn’t look very thrilled. 

Snout began storming the patio with a broom in hand.  “I dun told ya, kid, I dun told ya a million times, already!  I don’t get’cher money, ya don’t get ta eat,” he snorted in his gruff voice.  “This ain’t a free buffet, ya little bum!!”

Hovering in midair, Tails stared back at him with every ounce of sadness that tore his heart right about now.  He’d thought he had more time, but it seemed that Old Man Snout had gotten very wise to his game. 

“Not even… not even a little?” Tails asked quietly.  “This stuff’s already bitten into an’ eaten up, an’ no one else is gonna want it, an’ it’s jus’ gonna go in the garbage an’–”

“I don’t care if it’s on fire and swarmin’ with hornets!!” Snout roared, leaping with that broom and brandishing it like a broadsword.  “ _NO FREE EATS!!_ ” 

Tails yipped with alarm as he doubled back off a blueberry muffin with only a bite in it.  “’m sorry, mister!  I’ll go, I’m gonna go, now!  I’m gonna go now, see?!  I’m gonna – yah!!”  The fox barely darted up in the nick of time as Snout swung that broom full force.  “Yeah, ‘kay, I’m gonna go!  I’m sorry, mister!  Bye, now!!” 

“Now you just hold on a cotton pickin’ minute, partner!  You get back here!”  Another swing of that broom followed, and then another, and then yet another before Snout finally threw it to the ground in a rage.  “ _You little runt!  I’ll have ya penned up and muzzled, ya hear me?!_ ** _MUZZLED!!_** ”

Okay, well that prompted an executive decision on Tails’ part as he flew up over the brick ridge of the apartment rooftops. 

Snout’s Eats was _definitely_ out when lunchtime rolled around.

 

Perched on the edge of a low-end rooftop, Tails heartily licked his chops for another taste of Snout’s trademark wild berry syrup.  The inside of his rucksack would need another soak at his alcove, but it was well worth that trouble.  He sandwiched up some ketchup-doused hash browns and scrambled eggs on another bite of pancake and flipped it all in, savoring it for as long as he could.  He wished he could have taken some milk or juice to go with it, but water from the lake would serve just the same.

Down below, a portly black bear was waddling alongside a smaller but far leaner bulldog.  They were both donning the yellow helmets of construction work, likely heading for their shift.  The bulldog was smoking a freshly rolled cigar, one that sent a stink spiraling up and left Tails crinkling up his muzzle in disgust. 

“What d’ya think, Snooze?” the bulldog asked, flicking ashes off with his pinky claw.  “You don’t think he’s gonna be here much longer, do ya?”

The big bear known as Snooze only shrugged.  “No tellin’.  They say the guy can go anywhere, anytime, that he moves even faster than the wind.”

“Heh!  Yeah, but of all places he could go, y’know?”

“What, ya think he’d like Hill Top for the romantic scenery?”

The two workers shared a rumbling chuckle at that.  Tails listened idly and without much interest, rummaging into his rucksack for what was left of those sausage links.

“You thinkin’ what I’m thinkin’?” Snooze asked, his once jovial tone somewhat hesitant. 

The bulldog quirked an eyebrow, one that rose nicely on the brown patch over his left eye.  “Thinkin’ what?” he asked.

“Well, y’know, uh…”  Snooze trailed off, scratching at the back of his shaggy head and looking very sheepish all of a sudden.  “It’s, uh, it’s a once in a lifetime chance, maybe.  I mean, y’know…”

“No, I don’t know, oh cryptic pal of mine what speaks in riddles.”  The bulldog flicked off a few more ashes.  “For all my talents, Snooze, I ain’t a mind reader.”

“I was thinkin’ of heading out to the edge of the Emerald Clearing and getting me an autograph before work,” Snooze finally blurted out, twisting his gaze away.  He pressed on, chattering a mile a minute.  “I-I mean, not just for me, y’know!  You know the cubs won’t shut up about the guy, and if I _don’t_ bring ‘em back something, I’ll never hear the end of it.  Lulu would have me sleepin’ in the woods for a month, I’d tell you that much.”

Laughing, the bulldog pulled a deep drag on his cigar before letting out a smoky sigh.  “Hey, hey, you don’t gotta justify yourself to me, of all people,” he said, though he was looking at his coworker with a grin that vaguely suggested otherwise.  “Not often the fastest guy on the planet camps out in your zone.  If ya start runnin’ now, I’ll bet you can make it home just in time to grab your poster and your action figure.  See if he won’t sign those real quick!”

“Don’t even start that with me, Patchy.  I’ll knock you sideways.”

“Try it, ya wide load, we’ll see what happens.”

“All right, all right.”  The two began to lumber off down the sidewalk, though not before Snooze added rather brightly, “But even if you were bein’ a smart aleck, you got yerself a point.  How often _do_ you run into a guy like _Sonic the Hedgehog_ in a zone like this, anyway?”

Tails froze, going ramrod straight while the rucksack tumbled lifelessly out of his hands. 

_Sonic the Hedgehog._

_Here._

_In Emerald Hill Zone._

These three thoughts ran fervent circles in his head, but the young fox struggled to make them cohesive.  In his rucksack, half a cranberry muffin had lost its appeal.  An entire flock of butterflies juddered through him at the mere picture of none other than _Sonic the Hedgehog, here, in Emerald Hill Zone._ Tails didn’t tend to eavesdrop too much on grown-up conversations about town, but he forgave himself now if only because it couldn’t be right, someone had to have made a mistake.

Sonic the Hedgehog, the planet’s own national hero, couldn’t be in a boring and quiet place like _this,_ could he?  Sure, the zone boasted a nice surf when the right season rolled around, and the panoramic view of the great sea and the foothills preceding the mountains made for a few nice postcards, but other than that, Emerald Hill wasn’t much. 

“So then what’s he doin’ here?” he asked no one in particular, gazing out over the flat brick road of the village square.  “Is Robotnik back, or is it someone else he’s gonna stop?”

Admittedly, the idea of a hero on vacation never really occurred to the fox as he sat and pondered a short list of suspects.  Heroes never did things like that, did they?  No, they were always out stopping the bad guys.  They stopped the bad guys and then signed autographs for all the people that liked them, hung out with all their friends.

Tails would openly admit that a selfish but optimistic part of him had expected those things after saving Cocoa Island from the Kukku Army, however tiny that part was.  Upon returning home, somehow everyone should have known how he kept the island’s Chaos Emeralds hidden from the bad guys while he put out the fires and trashed their warships and bombed their machines.  Everyone somehow should have _known_ about his battles against the army’s soldiers, and maybe they should have told him how cool he was, how much stronger he looked now, or at least… wanted to be friends.   

Now wasn’t a good time for any of that, for obvious reasons.  Sonic was on the island, and Tails could never be as cool or as strong or as fast as he was. 

To be fair, _no one_ could be as cool as Sonic.

It was this very fact that had Tails gripped by terror at the very thought of going off to meet the legendary hero of South Island, himself.  What would he say?  What could he do?  Assuming that Sonic even wanted anything to do with a freak like him, anyway.

But the grown-ups had struck a very good point.  When would he ever get such a chance, again?

“Nothin’ wrong with goin’ to _see_ him, though,” he told himself, reasoned with himself to better ease his nerves.  “I don’t gotta talk to him or anything.  He… he prob’ly won’t even see _me._ I can jus’ go have a look and then fly back off again.  He don’t gotta see me and ‘s not like I gotta talk to him, so, that’s that.” 

With that decided, he stood with his near empty rucksack and began spinning his tails.  Hovering a foot or so over the ground, Tails took a final breath for courage before he tore off into the wind.  He’d scrounged pretty quickly for his breakfast this morning, and he could only hope it wouldn’t be coming back up again. 

 

On the flowery green edge of the Emerald Clearing, which was a glorified nature walk by the coastline, a very large crowd had gathered.  Very, _very_ large, Tails tacked on a bit nervously, as he perched atop one of the swaying palms growing along the path.  A pair of reporters – one a blonde human woman, the other a bald eagle with a waspy expression – had even turned up with cameras for what was apparently a humbling event for West Side Island. 

“We’re here right now with none other than the hero that _everyone_ is talking about,” the human reporter said, flashing her respective camera that classic white grin fit only for television.  “The hero who put a stop to the plans of a mad man on South Island, the only hero among all of us who could stand up to the notorious Doctor Ivo Robotnik!”

“An attempt to enslave our people for use in his machines, gone the way of smoke and flames in a battle across the island that none of us can forget,” the eagle added, his golden eyes betraying just the barest hint of well justified loathing for the scientist.  “All thanks to the efforts, quick thinking, and quick moving of one hedgehog.  Sonic the Hedgehog.”

Tails leaned as far as he safely could, staring down as the crowd of gawkers closed into a ring.  The hero stood a fair distance away, a hand swept into the smooth arc of deep blue quills.  He was even scuffing the grass with the toe of his trademark red sneaker. 

It was _him,_ Tails marveled, his heart hopping in his chest. 

_Sonic the Hedgehog!_

“Did Robotnik start cryin’ when you busted up all his stuff, Mister Sonic?”  A young chipmunk tried to squirm his way closer.  By unspoken courtesy, the crowd permitted the kids to the front line for that once in a lifetime chance to meet their hero.  “Did he start cryin’?  Did he?  Huh?”

“Mister Sonic!  Mister Sonic!!”  A purple feathered toucan chick waved her wing eagerly.  “One of my friends says that you went into a robot fact’ry in Scrap Brain Zone, an’ you hijacked this big, _big_ hundred foot firebreathin’ robot that you used in the final fight against Robotnik!  Is it true?!” 

“Can ya tell us one more time all about how you got outta the Labyrinth Zone ‘fore you drowned?”  A young wombat asked, practically leaping to hear the tale.  “My cousin says that people _drown_ in those tunnels!”

Sonic, for his part, seemed to meet his match in breakneck speed with all those questions flying every which way.  He grinned right back at them, though Tails could have sworn it was a bit reluctant.  “Hey, hey, I may be fast but I can only answer one at a time, squirts!”  He held up a mollifying hand, quieting the crowd’s dull roar to murmurs.  “And to answer all your questions… I dunno if he cried or not.  Hard to tell.  No, I didn’t hijack any giant robots, kiddo.  Pretty sure I don’t have a license for one of those.  And as for the Labyrinth Zone…” 

The hedgehog shuddered a little, the grim turn of his mouth coloring his distaste for the story readily.  The recollection he gave was crisp, almost curt in a way as he dove back into the Labyrinth Zone and all of its sloshing waters and hidden passageways. 

Tails pricked up his ears to hang on every word.  It was all just… so, so _cool._ He had literally hunted Robotnik through a maze of slick rock, ancient traps that sent spears flying, all the while smashing the army of robots that hounded him around every turn!  Tails felt his fingers tighten into the palm leaves when he brought up the deadly climb; Robotnik had rerouted water into a vertical ascent swamped with dangers.

 _‘Course he won, though!  He’s_ Sonic! 

Sure, the fox had faced a fair amount of dangers on Cocoa Island, but they all seemed so pale in comparison, now.  He was still proud enough of himself that he’d kept the Chaos Emeralds out of the wrong hands, but…

“I could never do any of that stuff,” Tails mumbled, finishing his own thought. 

_Maybe I could, if I was more like him…_

“Ah, Mister Sonic, over here!”  The human reporter waved her arm as she advanced.

Sonic laughed.  “Hey, enough with the ‘Mister Sonic’ stuff, already.  I’m _just_ Sonic.  What’s up?”

The reporter gestured at her cameraman.  “Well, all right, Sonic,” she corrected herself with a wink.  “I’ll admit, this isn’t really a question… but I’m sure everyone watching at home would _love_ to get a sneak peek at that supersonic speed of yours!”

“Would they, now?” Sonic asked with a mischievous smile. 

“Only if it’s not too much trouble, of course,” the woman replied.  “Gosh, I’m sure we can all only _imagine_ the sheer strength, metabolism and insane amount of foresight for the obstacles it must take to–”

She was abruptly cut off by a clap of wind whipping her hair over her shoulder.  Tails hadn’t taken his eyes off of his hero for a second, but it was like watching the shimmer of a heat mirage; one second he’d been there, the next he was gone.  The audience all exchanged glances, startled cries, all sorts of questions about where he’d gone and which direction he’d bolted off to. 

From his perch, though, Tails could just make out a phantom blue glimmer, moving full tilt like a bullet through the southern streets of town.  He couldn’t stop smiling.  The only thing better than a chance to see his hero was to see his hero _in action._

“He’s gone…!” the bald eagle exclaimed, turning in all directions.

“Now… gosh, where in the world…!”  The woman struggled for a few brief seconds to rebalance herself on her heels, brushing out the skirt of her blazer, trying to make some muddled sense of what had just happened.  “Where did he…?  Oh, shoot, I hope that wasn’t too fast for the cameras…!” 

Another cyclonic wind found her hair whipped back the other direction.  The onlookers gasped their excitement, finding none other than their hero standing right back where he was, a half-eaten chili dog in his hand.  Tails giggled, imagining the vendor’s surprise to find himself short a dog but a few rings richer thanks to a visit from a ghost.

“Sorry, had to grab somethin’ to eat _real_ fast,” Sonic said, before tearing into another bite.  “Mmph!  So, uh, what were you saying?” 

The eagle blinked, looking almost bewildered by what he’d just seen.  Or rather, what he just _hadn’t_ seen.  “I think we were saying that we’ve been put in a rather humble place, just now,” he said.

The woman chuckled.  “I’d say you’re right, there,” she added.  “Ladies and gentlemen, it just goes to show you that maybe they say seeing is believing, but some things are just too quick to _be_ seen!  Sonic the Hedgehog has just gone into town and brought back a little lunch for himself in _literally_ ten seconds flat!”

“With such a power on our side,” the eagle said.  “I think it’s safe to say our fair planet can rest much easier.”

“Right you are!  This is Trudy, Channel Eight, bringing you all the live coverage of Sonic’s own visit to West Side Island!  Stay tuned for more!” 

 

“Okay… let’s do this…!” 

In the middle of the meadow, Tails crouched like a runner on his mark.  He regarded the stretch of tall grass before him almost fiercely.  He’d passed televisions in shops for the sole purpose to watch it a million times, and he’d been practicing it even before Cocoa Island, _something_ had to give. 

“Up… over…!” 

Tails jetted off, his twin tails fluttering over his heels like a pair of loose flags.  The fox could start off on a decent keel, it was just a matter of maintaining momentum before he rolled, was all.  He wasn’t counting on sawing through steel, but after what felt like a million ‘simulations’ he’d run with a toy robot, he liked to think he had the famed spindash stripped to its base mechanics.  Of course, knowing and doing were two monumentally different things.

He wouldn’t give up, though.  Because _Sonic_ wouldn’t give up.

“An’… gone!!” 

Quick as he could, Tails tucked his head down towards his ankles… and proceeded to yelp and splutter as he kicked himself upside the head.  With a thud and an awkward tangle of legs, he was down for the count.  Again. 

“Ugh…!  Why’s this not working?” Tails grumbled, forcing himself up, ears flat against his head.  “I know I got faster on Cocoa Island!  I had to have!” 

“Hey, freak!  Think fast!”

Tails barely had time to see the rock coming before he was leaping up to dodge it.  It flittered into the grass, a bare inch or so away from where his head had been. 

There was snorty, hooting laughter.  Across the meadow, Arms was flanked by his usual buddies alongside a large black bear cub, a badger and a vulture chick, and they were all watching him with leering eyes.

Arms bared the fox a fanged grin.  “Man, I still can’t hit ya when you’re movin’ like that!  Maybe you _got faster,_ after all!”  He turned on heel to his companions.  “What do ya think, boys?  He’s gotten _real_ fast, hasn’t he?”

“Oh yeah,” the tiger cub snorted.  “ _Sonic_ fast, even!” 

“He was tryin’ to move just like Sonic,” the vulture chick said, cawing with ugly laughter.  “You guys see that?  The little freak thinks he’s _Sonic,_ now!  This is too good!”

The black bear cub grinned.  “Heya, freak!  You got anything for me to break this time ‘round?” he asked, pounding his balm with a bulky little fist.  “Been a long time since I’ve gotten to practice my smashing!” 

Tails flattened his ears, the better to shrink himself as he backpedaled until he went upright against a tree trunk.  He could have flown away, sure, but he tended to batten down that instinct whenever it rose.  Watching him fly, watching him use those ‘mutant freaky tails’ always just made things worse.  Always. 

Arms led the way for the rest of the gang into the meadow.  “Hey, hey, little guy, don’t look so freaked out!”  He held up a pair of empty hands, which Tails marked as a good thing for the time being.  “We just saw you practicin’ your moves out here and wanna help, that’s all!  Believe me, I know a few things about needin’ someone to help you practice!”

Tails stared him back down with wide, spooked eyes.  He knew very well by experience just what sort of charity Arms dished out. 

“Let’s help the little guy out, boys,” Arms said gleefully.  “Get ‘im!” 

The other cubs lunged for him.  Tails managed to duck and dart away from the vulture and the bear cub, but he couldn’t help a high squeak as the badger and tiger seized him by the arms.  He thrashed like he was possessed, shouting and pleading all the while. 

 _It’d be so easy,_ whispered a part that Tails preferred to keep buried.  _If I had my robo-Tails or if I had my stuff from the island…!_ But he didn’t.  He’d left a good lot of that back in his father’s old research lab, assuming it would be better hidden from badniks and from… well, Arms and his gang.

Arms and his gang that were supposed to be his friends, after everything he’d done to save the island and possibly the world from the Kukku Army.  Or at least just leave him alone.

“Man, you’re just not as quick as Sonic, huh, kid?” Arms asked, cocking his head.  The near pensive gleam in his eye betrayed a few ideas the fox wasn’t likely to enjoy.  “C’mon, you gotta move fast!  I think your problem’s just… _motivation._ ”

“Let me go!” Tails said.  He jolted one way and whipped the other, but the other cubs kept him fast.  “Jus’ lemme go!!  I didn’t do anything to you!!  Lemme go!!”

“C’mon, kid, you can’t throw in the towel, now!  We only just started practicin’,” Arms said.  “Here, this’ll be motivation to get ya started!” 

Arms’ fist flew, and Tails felt a ridge of knuckles slam into his stomach.  An ache flared as his breath whooshed out of him.  Tears pearled in his eyes, but he furiously blinked them back with all the resolve he imagined of the flying soldier in the canyon.  _Not gonna cry.  Not gonna.  Only dumb li’l kids cry…!_

“You’re killin’ me, freak!  This just ain’t gonna work, huh?” Arms asked, clucking his tongue as if pitying the sight sagging before him.  “Man.  That’s just not enough motivation, is it?”

Tails let out a gargled sputter.

“Here, lemme try this!” 

Another punch found Tails doubled over and hanging from the grip of the other cubs like a marionette on cut strings.  Strength buckled cleanly out of his legs.  This time, the tears began stealing down his cheeks.  He felt his face burn, felt his ears burn, but the world swam in a gauzy fog even as he forced his eyes open.  The pain swam in his gut, nestled until it rocked him.   

“Still nothin’, huh?” Arms asked almost sympathetically.  “Maybe I ought’a try somethin’ else.”

 _No, no, nothin’ worse, please…!_ Tails silently begged, though nothing escaped his gaping mouth.  _Please nothin’ worse, please, please jus’ lemme go, please…!_

“Maybe you ought’a try picking on someone your own size,” a new voice said rather coolly, slicing through the haze that still stuffed Tails’ head like a fistful of cotton.  “Let him go.  Now.” 

It surprised Tails to his core.  To his utter amazement, the two kids holding him let him go in an instant, availing him the freedom to fall, coughing, down to his knees.  Even through his blurry vision, he could see them backing off.  They cleared away from him as if he actually _was_ the diseased little mutant they constantly accused him of being. 

“W-we, uh… we didn’t mean anything by it, u-uh, s-sir,” the bear cub began yammering.  “W-we were just, uh, we were playin’ a game, w-we were just playing–”

“Yeah?  Doesn’t look like a very fun game to me,” the new voice cut in harshly.  “In fact, seems like this game’s only fun on one side.”

With the world swimming back into focus, Tails almost _refused_ to believe the voice he was hearing.  It couldn’t be.  It simply couldn’t be, and Tails didn’t want to crush himself beneath that much hope, and yet it only sounded like… 

“Hey, take it easy!  What’re you lookin’ so serious for?  It’s just to toughen him up a little,” Arms muttered, though he spoke with the sort of tone that often accompanied someone averting their eyes.  “If it weren’t for us keepin’ him on his toes, then he’d probably be–”

“Yeah, right,” the new voice – _Sonic_ – snapped.  “Take a hike, all of you.”

“Um…”  The vulture squawked a bit nervously.  “Don’t suppose, uh… a-an autograph…?” 

A very long and notably terse silence followed. 

“I said, take a hike,” Sonic all but snarled.  “ _Get lost._ ”

They didn’t hesitate to do exactly that, bustling away as if their tails were on fire.  Arms might have thought himself the toughest kid on this side of the Emerald Hill Zone, but even he knew when to fold.

Down on his knees, Tails felt his ears and face flaming.  He angrily swiped away the tears that were still trickling down his face.  Crying.  He was crying in front of _Sonic the Hedgehog,_ of all people, blubbering like a little baby.  He half expected Sonic to tear into _him_ on the offense of being a stupid little kid who cried because of a couple punches.  Sonic himself would have _never_ found himself in that position. 

“Hey, kid…” 

Tails looked up and saw the hedgehog kneeling very slowly towards him.  He was frowning, even.  Great. 

“You okay, pal?” Sonic asked, extending a hand towards him.  “Here.  Lemme help you up.”

His heart plunging like a stone into his stomach, Tails couldn’t really take much more.  He swiped away a few more tears, swallowing back a fresh onslaught of blubbering before instinct graciously took over.  Tails bolted to his feet and started running.  He ran while clutching his stomach and trying to gather the shattered pieces of whatever pride he had left.  Times like this found Tails with every urge to fly, twist up his tails and fly without looking back, but he beat it back down as he leaped over the low underbrush. 

It would just make things worse.  It always did. 

Always.

“Wait, hold on…!” Sonic called after him.  “Wait, bud…!” 

But Tails didn’t wait. 

He ran, tirelessly, almost endlessly without looking back.   

 


	3. Me and My Shadow

One thing Sonic had to give Emerald Hill Zone?  The food.  Sure, the place may have been a bit too quiet for his taste, a bit too cut and dry, a bit too _slow,_ but Snout’s Eats knew how to spice up a chilidog just right.  It was the unspoken rule to any decent chili: you could _never_ have too much jalapeño.  He contemplated asking about the recipe as he sat back on the red vinyl stool, awaiting his third helping. 

Not that this was his purpose for being here, of course.  Hard as it was to believe, yes, there were far more pressing matters than chilidogs at large here. 

The hedgehog smiled wryly as he sipped at his soda.  _Way more pressing.  Way larger, too.  About four hundred pounds larger._ Sonic had learned a while back, in the midst of his lingering nightmares about Scrap Brain Zone, that sometimes laughter really was the best medicine.  Better than screaming, or near constant vigilance that would have driven him crazy, anyway. 

“Here ya go, Sonic,” the warthog known as Snout said cheerfully, sliding him another plate of chili dogs.  “On the house, as ya well know.  I always got a few chili dogs to spare for our greatest hero!”

Sonic grinned, taking up the first one and sinking in a huge, eager bite.  “Thanks, Snout, my man,” he said, once he’d swallowed it down.  He awarded the chef a thumbs up.  “I gotta hand it to ya, you guys know how to make a dog around here!” 

Snout chuckled.  “Now, now, ya don’t need to go butterin’ me up,” he said.  “I’d say you’ve done enough just by bringin’ more business!  I been makin’ a killing since _you_ came to town!” 

That much was the truth, even Sonic could see.  Quite a flourish of customers had started skulking around the diner these past couple days, likely with hopes for an autograph, an interview, or just the chance to eat within the vicinity of a certain hedgehog.  Sonic’s feelings on the matter could only be described as mixed.  He wasn’t sure what to feel for the praises of doing what anyone should have done, in his position.

Should he have simply _let_ Robotnik make off with his friends on South Island?  He had personally seen the horrors of what they were being put through.  Smashing open that first robobug in Green Hill Zone had been enough for him, watching the coherence and clarity flash in that feral rabbit’s eyes before they had simply taken off running, as if afraid to look back.  It had been all the drive Sonic needed to keep pushing forward.  He hadn’t really meant for the story of his fight against Robotnik on South Island to get out as it had, but well, their battles had been a tad hard to keep out of the public eye.

But the people wanted a hero, not someone whose heart became knotted with every badnik he saw.  They wanted a hero, not someone who woke with his heart thundering when he dreamed of screaming out the last of his air in Labyrinth Zone. 

They wanted a hero, so he shrugged and gave them a hero.

A little hope in exchange for total honesty didn’t seem like a bad deal.

“Ya look a little thoughtful over there, sonny,” Snout remarked, wiping down his counter.  “You ain’t said much since comin’ in, matter o’ fact.  Not one joke, even.”

“Heh, sorry old man,” Sonic replied, gulping down the final bite of his next chilidog.  “I’ll bring the knock-knock jokes next time.  This time, I’ve got a few questions for ya.”

“Yeah?”  Snout stuffed the rag down the front pocket of his splotchy apron.  “What’cha got in mind, son?”

Sonic leaned tentatively on his elbow.  “I was wonderin’ what the word around town is.  Aside from me, that is,” he added before the old warthog could state the obvious.  “If there’s been any word of anything weird around here.”  If Sonic could be sure of one thing, it was that whispers spun of the rumor mill could move almost as quickly as _he_ did.

“Hm…”  Snout fell quiet, tapping a finger along his countertop.  Whatever faults he may have had, at least he seemed to doubt that Sonic was looking to hear who was seen out on the town with whose wife in terms of gossip.  “Well, now that ya mention it, some folks have been talkin’ about weird stuff they’ve seen out in them jungles, a bit of a stone’s toss outta town.”

“Weird stuff, huh?” Sonic asked.  “Can ya get any more specific, old timer?”

“Ah yeah, prob’ly could,” Snout replied.  “Ya see, few weeks back the town was given the okay to get at a new water channel, few stretches east o’ here.  But word I’ve been hearin’ is that the construction crew’s gettin’… held up a bit.”

“Held up.”

“Not that they want this gettin’ out, but it’s them clunkers,” Snout said grimly.  “Robots, sonny.  Or at least, that was the way I heard ol’ Snooze describe somethin’ that came at him from outta nowhere.  Said he was workin’ along the dam to reroute the river, and somethin’ like a big ol' metal hornet came flittin’ outta them trees.”

Sonic’s gaze was riveted across the counter, now. 

“Other boys didn’t believe him when he was tryin’ to tell ‘em about it, of course,” Snout continued, shaking his head.  “Asked him what he’d been drinkin’ and laughed at him, pretty much.  That’s about all I know, though, son.  I ain’t heard much more of interest.”

A nod, and Sonic chomped the first half of his next chilidog up in one bite.  It was enough for him, far more than enough.  “Hey, don’t sweat it.  You’ve been helpful enough, old man.  Not that I don’t want the chilidogs to keep comin’, but –”

“Hold on just a spell, son,” Snout grumbled, crouching behind the counter.  Sonic blinked his surprise when he pulled out a broom, of all things.  “Got somethin’ I gotta take care of.”

“Whoa, hold on!” Sonic held out a mollifying hand, grinning wryly.  “If ya needed a joke that bad, old timer, all you had to do was ask!”

“It ain’t you, Sonic.”  Snout bustled out from behind the counter as quickly as his stubby legs would carry him, until he waddled his way right through the front door.  “I TOLD YOU TO GIT, KID!  BEAT IT!” 

Turning on his stool, Sonic could only look on as Snout chased what he’d first presumed to be feral squirrels or pigeons or perhaps some other kind of pest off the diner’s front patio.  It startled him to see none other than that small fox kid from a day ago, caught filching an unfinished bagel off one of the black mesh tables.  Snout was charging the fox, ignoring the wide-eyed fear of death he’d put in the kid by simply towering over him, and bringing that broom back for a mighty swing.

Sonic hopped up and hurried out.  “Hey!  Old man, what are ya doin’?!” 

Snout turned, his stormy look softened by momentary surprise.  The fox kid, seeing an opportunity, snatched up the bagel and tore off as fast as he could run.  Even in Sonic’s opinion, the kid didn’t have a bad pace. 

Upon seeing the fox bolt, Snout sighed and slouched with the broom nestled uselessly on the ground.  “Well, guess that got rid’a him, at least,” he growled, before that pink and gray nose flared with a terrific snort.

“Yeah,” Sonic quipped flatly.  “Sure was a close call, wasn’t it?  Think that little kid might’a given you a real run for your money if you weren’t careful.”

Snout averted his gaze and scratched at the back of his head, looking almost ashamed of himself.  Then with another wet snort, his look was indignant.  “That little kid comes ‘round every now and then to pick scraps up off my tables, just like a little feral vulture,” he said.  “It scares the customers just a bit, there, sonny.  Ain’t nothin’ personal about it, but I’d prefer havin’ folks come _back_ ‘round here for lunchtime.”

“Who _was_ that kid?”

Snout gave a flick of his hand.  “That’s just Tails,” he said.  “Little weird mutant kid that lives ‘bout the outskirts o' town.  Not many of the other kids like him that much.  Considerin’ the little circle we tend to dance every other day, can’t say I’m too fond of him, either.”

Sonic stroked his chin.  No denying that the little fox was a bit on the strange side – he’d never seen a fox with _two_ tails before – but still, nothing warranted what he’d seen the other day.  Nobody deserved that, did they?  “Doesn’t he get money from his folks to get his own food?” he asked.  “Sheesh, do his folks feed him at all?”

“No tellin’,” Snout replied.  “I don’t know that much about him, and I don’t make it a thing to go puttin’ my snout in business that don’t concern me.  All’s I know is I don’t like him swipin’ scraps off my tables with those grimy little paws of his.”

“Well…”  Sonic opted to end the conversation for now.  He shrugged his way past Snout, who was still slumped over his broom like a sack of potatoes.  “I ought to get going, old man.  Thanks for the grub.”

“Any time, Sonic,” Snout said, brightening.  “You come on back any time you get hungry!  And, heh, don’t you forget who’s been keepin’ ya fed so good all this time if anyone asks, y’hear?”

“Sure, sure.  You got an endorsement.”

“Now that sounds good!  Heh, thank ya kindly, sonny!”

The hedgehog took off at what he’d call a relatively lax pace, though it was still enough to leave Snout cringing in the slapping wind that swept back in his wake. 

 

_Man, it’s warm out here!_

The lush jungles outside of Emerald Hill’s civilizations were a lot like Green Hill, in a way.  Sonic found himself swept into a world of fine greenery, towering palms, the sigh of waterfalls beneath rickety wooden bridges, the salt and sand smell of the coastline a few miles off.  He sped along the grassy slopes with all the same ease he had in Green Hill, once upon what felt like forever ago.  He half expected to run into the spiky trunks that typically marked Green Hill’s bridges.

If he’d only stopped, he might have had the chance to glimpse the entire shoreline.  Now _that_ was a far clearer view than any that Green Hill gave, unless you somehow clambered atop the highest plateau, anyway. 

 _But we’re not here for sightseeing,_ he reminded himself, running across another bridge of rickety-sounding logs bound in twined rope.  _We’re looking for any signs of ol’ Robuttnik kickin’ around._

After their showdown in the Final Zone, Sonic hadn’t been utterly convinced of the demise of the ol’ doc.  He remembered curling into a little buzzsaw of blue quills and striking that hovercraft, he remembered the flames belching out of the side of the machine.  And yes, he remembered the elation of the world jumping off his shoulders as Robotnik went down for what had seemed like a final time.  But more than anything, Sonic remembered the cold, calculating rage that had danced briefly in those eyes as the mad scientist passed. 

Robotnik wasn’t just the sort who lived for vengeance.  He was the sort that lived out of spite, the sort that hung on like the wet cough of pneumonia.  After putting down zones upon zones’ worth of his most lethal death machines?  The hedgehog was squarely convinced that Robotnik could be waiting to creep back up any time.

Snout’s story of the buzzbomber in Emerald Hill’s jungles wasn’t the first one he’d heard of Robotnik’s cronies appearing on West Side Island.

And as it happened, it didn’t take long for Sonic to spot that first buzzbomber, flickering through a pair of palm trees tucked just so off the trail.  Or, to be more wholly accurate, Sonic spotted the little flaming ball that it fired from its tail end. 

It was only by a well-timed leap that the hedgehog was able to dodge it, flipping nimbly over his feet and skidding to a stop directly under it.

The buzzbomber hummed angrily, trying to realign its shot with a pivot and a swing of its tail.  Sonic crouched, then sprang up with as much strength as he could muster.  Spinning in towards his heels, he bared a back’s worth of pointed quills before the bomber could dodge.  There was a hum of frantic alarm on the robot’s part, but Sonic felt its plating snap like thin ice. 

It crumpled apart with a tiny explosion.  Through a rivulet of smoke, Sonic landed and turned in time to see what looked like a brown feral rabbit hobbling off into the brush.   

“Where there’s one, there’s more of ya,” Sonic grumbled, standing up straight.  “So the rest of you might as well come out and take your lumps.  C’mon, where are you?  Time to take out the trash!”

In the chitter of the jungle, Sonic only had to wait a few precious seconds before he saw the fiery red eyes of at least three more buzzbombers, leering at him through the palms.

 

 

_I’m not followin’ him.  This isn’t followin’.  I’m jus’… checkin’ on him._

This was how Tails justified padding along the Emerald Hill wilderness, scuttling like a june bug along the brush off the path.  He was careful to stay low and well out of sight as the hedgehog zipped along.  For all of it, the fox knew he wasn’t sporting camouflage with that bright orange fur.

He wasn’t following, however.  Of course not.

_Jus’ checkin’ to make sure he’s okay, ‘cause I wished sometimes I’d had someone to check on me back on the island._

And that was every bit the truth.  Tails had run into some pretty tight spots on Cocoa Island where he’d wished he’d had back up, or at least someone to help him out with those pesky Kukku robots swarming the forest and mountains.  Not that Sonic the Hedgehog needed _anyone’s_ help, least of all _his_ , but it still hadn’t felt right to just let him go it all alone. 

Sonic was a tough customer to keep up with, though.  Every time he caught up, the hedgehog seemed to be darting off to another venue.  He was quick as a glimmer of heat lightning, but Tails wouldn’t give up, not for every ring in the zone.  Sure he was a dumb little crybaby that got picked on, as far as Sonic now knew of him, but he wasn’t a quitter.

_I gotta check on him an’ make sure he’s okay.  So I’m jus’ checkin’._

His persistence paid off handsomely.  Every time Sonic seemed to run just out of sight, a whirl of his tails found the fox flying and catching up within a few seconds.  He smiled to himself as he perched in another coconut tree.  Sonic was already in action!  Spinning into a ball, he slammed up into the belly of a buzzbomber and tore it apart in one shot! 

“C’mon, where are you?  Time to take out the trash,” he heard Sonic say defiantly.

Tails’ already big blue eyes became huge at the spectacle.  “Man, he’s so… cool!!” 

Who had he been kidding?  Sonic hadn’t needed his help or someone checking on him.  Just as great as the stories said, like always, Sonic was calm and cool and strong where it counted.  Beaming hugely, the fox was almost content to just nest comfortably as he could in the leaves and settle for that.  Sonic was a _hero,_ a National Hero, with those letters properly capitalized and preferably underlined.  He could handle himself.

Or at least, Tails liked to think so, despite the swarm of buzzbombers flittering up through the trees.

He leaned on his perch with all the rapt attention of any child watching his favorite superhero across the silver screen.  “You can take ‘em, Sonic…!”  Tails was careful to keep his voice down to a whisper.  “You can take ‘em!  Show ‘em what you got!”

Show ‘em, he did.  Sonic first launched himself into a flip at one of the palm trunks, catching a swift foothold to fly up at an angle.  With another grating slam and a _wrunch_ of plating, the second buzzbomber imploded to free a feral monkey.  The hedgehog landed gracefully on his feet, but he wasn’t through yet.  He spun sharply on his heels, springing up again to crash into the side of another buzzbomber only to ricochet backward as wildly as a pinball and saw through yet another as it flew up behind him with its stinger raised.

“Go, Sonic, go…!  Go, Sonic…!” The little fox cheered as quietly as he could, while his heart fluttered and his tails wagged in all his excitement.  _He’s jus’ as cool as everyone says!  ‘S not jus’ stories after all!_ He thought elatedly.  “Go, Sonic!!” 

Sonic flipped back from his latest assault, skidding on the balls of his feet as he glared up at the latest fallen badnik.  Another feral monkey fled back into the jungle, chittering in blind panic. 

Tails grinned.  It was all playing out just the way he’d always imagined.

And then the next buzzbomber rose up behind him, its tail crackling in a whir of flame.

 _‘S okay, Sonic can handle it,_ Tails thought.  He leaned as close as he could to the edge of the leaves while minding his balance, his fingers bound in a white-knuckled grip beneath his gloves.  _Get ‘em, Sonic!  Take ‘em out!_

The buzzbomber fired, and Sonic didn’t take ‘em out.  In fact, he only had a second or so to spin on the robot with a look of faint surprise before the fireball flew against his left side, slashing into his quills.  Sonic gave a shout of pain as he staggered along on his feet, eyes shut tight in a wince.   

“ _Sonic!!_ ”    

It was more than Tails could comprehend, let alone stand for.  Sonic, taking a hit from a bad guy?  Not that Tails held Sonic to the impossible standard of perfection, by all the Chaos, no.  Sonic had to have taken a few lumps here and there, _everyone_ did.  Tails had learned that one by the kind hand of experience, the best teacher of ‘em all. 

But to imagine Sonic hurt and to _see_ Sonic hurt, Tails learned in that moment, were two entirely separate beasts to tackle. 

This one, Tails _couldn’t_ just stand back and take.  He _couldn’t._   He leaned until he felt the trip of empty air beneath him, then set his tails whirling furiously as he ever had.  An electrical surge swelled in his chest, one he was all too familiar with back on Cocoa Island. 

“Hang on, Sonic!!” Tails called out as he swooped in with all the fervor of a whole factory of buzzbombers.  “I’m comin’!!  Help’s on the way!!”   

The attack would have been much easier if he’d had his bombs on hand, but Tails could settle for what was clearly a much more efficient way.  He flew in from above, his foot outstretched.

Sonic craned his neck, looking up at him with an awe that filled Tails’ heart with pride.  “Wait!!  Kid, what do you think you’re doing?!” 

Tails’ foot caught the bomber on the side, sending it off-kilter and flailing wildly.  “It’ll be okay, Sonic,” Tails said, finding time enough to send the hedgehog a thumbs up.  “I whopped him good for you!  He’s not gonna –”

“ _Kid, watch out!!_ ”

There was a sudden sizzle of flame to Tails’ far right.  His ear pricked at the sound of it, but when he looked and saw nothing but a wall of searing bright orange, instinct told him it was too late.  It coiled around him, engulfing him. 

Tails could smell scorched fur, he could see nothing but orange, and he distantly recalled the glowing coal embers of Poloy Forest.  He remembered the _heat,_ from the tips of his ears to the soles of his sneakers, and then there was the pain, the _pain,_ a bright flaring _pain_ that rocketed up his back as he collided with _something –_

A darkness rocked around him, and Tails didn’t remember anything else.

 

Sonic wasn’t a happy camper.

In fact, he was a tangled hangman’s knot of feelings he had yet to sort through, carrying the fox kit back through the wild outskirts of Emerald Hill Zone.  He recognized him, all right.  None other than the kid from earlier that morning, the same kid who had been in the hands of those bullies.  Old Snout had mentioned his name, but it had slipped Sonic’s mind for the time being. 

Taking out the buzzbomber had been easy enough, he hadn’t needed any help, really.  The ‘bot had just brought up the rear a few seconds late for a surprise attack.  Not all that uncommon a tactic, but still super annoying.

One look down at the kid’s pained face, though, and Sonic couldn’t bring himself to get angry.  He sighed, ears flattening.  It was one thing he hated about all this ‘hero’ business.  One look at all the neat things _Sonic the Hedgehog_ could do, and you had every little kid thinking _they_ could do it, too.  Maybe he made it look too easy.     

 _Surprise, kiddo,_ Sonic thought dryly.  _It takes more than eating your veggies and stayin’ in school to fight Robotnik._

The fox was now sporting some fairly nasty burns.  His fur was scorched into fizzled shocks down the left side of his face, but his now blistered ear seemed to have fared the worst.  The tuft of cream white belly fur had been whipped a charred gray, nothing too concerning there, but his right leg had been singed just a bit until the skin beneath was puckered.  The burns weren’t much to worry about, but the kid had been startled enough to fly backward right into a tree.  Tumbling bonelessly to the jungle floor likely hadn’t been on purpose. 

Sonic shook his head.  “Man, if you knew how it really was, kiddo,” he muttered as he walked a brisk pace.  Unbearably slow, but he didn’t want to risk aggravating the fox’s injuries.  “If you knew how it really was, you’d probably stick to the playground like everyone else.”

He smiled crookedly, in spite of himself.

_You really are a bit weirder than the other kids, aren’t ya?_

As he walked them back towards civilization, the hedgehog couldn’t quite bring himself to lend the thought a voice.


	4. Meeting Proper

As if trailing fire back into his memories, Tails dreamt of Poloy Forest.  He remembered the way the trees went up like pyres; flames climbing, leaves fizzling and twigs snapping, the whole of it going up like a gigantic fuse.  He was hurrying, flying as fast as he could, tasting the smoke that hung as thick as sawdust on the air and choked him.  He had seen a glint of one of _them._ Some sort of bird piloting the _machine,_ a colossus of jointed legs and spindled limbs, and the swell of its armor imprinted with some sort of insignia.  He had no idea who they were, only that _they_ had done this.  The Flickies were still shrieking high panic as they tore off from their roosts, bolting on winds that carried the embers.

The machine fled into the woods, and Tails had no choice but to follow.

_‘Cause this is my island, or it is until mom an’ dad get back.  I gotta protect it._

“Hey, I think you’ve done plenty of protectin’ today, kiddo.”

Tails looked about for the source of this new voice, baffled.  Some part of him might have known it to be a dream, a memory, and that might have explained his innate knowledge that he was supposed to be alone.  He searched as best he could through the rising smoke, through the stench of burning wood and machine oil. 

 _I gotta go,_ he thought to himself, tails still spinning. _Gotta keep goin’._

“No, pal, you’re gonna stay right where you are.  Not until the doctors give you an okay, anyhow.”

_Wha…?_

“Open your eyes, kiddo.  Come on.”

 

“Open your eyes, kiddo.  Come on.”

Eventually, the kid’s eyes snapped open.  He sat up with the winded gasp of a drowning man, looking around with his ears swiveling, the bandages about his left ear defiantly forgotten.  He threw off the white cotton sheets, blinking his way back from the haze of a couple sedatives.  Eventually, all the sterile white surfaces and checkered white linoleum would register.  Through the single first floor window, a breeze murmured through the curtains.    

Sonic smiled sympathetically.  Hospitals were hardly his idea of a vacation.  He could only imagine how a kid as young as this one might take to waking in one, of all places.

“What…?  How’d I…?”  The fox spun from one side to the other, looking all the more worried as coherence wavered back in those big blue eyes.  “Where am I?  What happened to the forest…!” 

“Hey, hey, take it easy,” Sonic said, trying to keep his voice low.  “It’s fine, kid.  I’m more worried about _you,_ than anything.”

“Me?”  Understanding dawned at last on the kid’s face.  “Wait a sec...  ‘m at the doctor’s?  How’d I end up here?” 

“Let’s answer that one with another question,” Sonic replied with a wan smile.  “How did _you_ end up taggin’ along with me in the zone, back there?”

A split second of thought on this, and the fox seemed to recall the trouble he’d caused.  “Um… well, see…”  His big ears were pinned back against his head.  “Saw you runnin’ an’ wanted to check on you.  I wasn’t taggin’.”

“You weren’t, huh?” Sonic asked.  “How do you figure?”

“’Cause if I was taggin’ along, then you’d have _seen_ me taggin’.  But you didn’t _see_ me, so, so it doesn’t count.”

Sonic assuaged the bridge of his nose with a pair of fingers.  “Okay, lemme try that again,” he said.  “How’d you end up jumpin’ into the fight like that?  You ought’a know fightin’ ol’ Robuttnik and his baddies is _my_ job.”

The kid nodded.  “Well ‘course it is!  You’re _Sonic,_ you’re the coolest guy in the _whole_ world, an’ fightin’ bad guys is what you do,” he said as if this were the most inane observation in five zones.  Sonic supposed that, in a way, it was.  That was the set reality of the world now after South Island.  “But… but y’know, I… well…”

“What?”

“Nothin’.”  The kid shook his head, affecting a pout as he folded his arms.  “But I saw a badnik flyin’ up an’… I thought…” 

“That you'd try to swing in and help out,” Sonic said as kindly as he could muster.  Going soft wasn’t typically his style, but he could at least be thankful for the tact that wouldn’t shoot down a little kid whose only crime was doing what he thought was right.  “But you gotta understand that fights like that, they’re… well, it ain’t like what’cha see on TV shows, squirt.  You can really get hurt, tryin’ to do stuff like that.” 

The kid shrugged.  “’S not a big deal.”

Sonic frowned, eye ridges furrowing.  “It _is_ a big deal.”  Very delicately, he rested a hand on the fox’s shoulder, one that wasn’t currently mummified in gauze.  “You don’t wanna worry your folks, do ya?  Pretty sure they’re gonna be flippin’ their lids as it is once they hear about this.”

A very stolid silence followed as the fox slowly looked away.  He clenched the blankets up in his tiny fists. 

For as long as he could, Sonic struggled against comprehension before it seized him anyway.  “Uh… well, _whoever_ ya live with,” he corrected himself, clearing his throat awkwardly.  “I’m sure _they’d_ care if somethin’ happened to you.”

“Yeah,” the kid mumbled.  “Sure.”

Clearing his throat again, Sonic eased his hand out for a shake.  “Well, if we’re on the same page there, I think we ought’a try again on that whole actually meeting, thing.  I’m Sonic!  What’s your name, kiddo?  No runnin’ away this time.”

The fox cringed at that as if he’d been struck, and Sonic regretted the comment almost instantly.  “Hi.  ‘m Tails,” the kid answered quietly, reaching out to take Sonic’s hand in both of his.  He brightened right back into a large smile as soon as he looked up.  “An’…!  An’ it’s a big honor to finally meet you, Mister Sonic!  I’ve been waitin’ for this my whole, entire life!” 

Now _this_ was undoubtedly more familiar footing.  Sonic was happy to laugh it right off.  “Hey, hey, I liked it better when ya called me Sonic,” he replied with a wink.  “Nice to meet you too, kid.  Though I'd have probably preferred you not gettin' hurt.” 

Tails drew back a hand and scratched laxly at his unsinged ear, almost by way of a nervous tic.  “W-well… I-I mean, you… you helped me,” he said, his voice going very soft.  “So I thought… I guess I thought…”

“You’d help me out right back,” Sonic supplied.  The idea made sense, however senseless the _action_ was.  “Like I said, Tails, I’m not so sure I wanna see you pullin’ another stunt like that.”

“But every hero’s gotta start _somewhere_ ,” the fox said plaintively.  “’Cause you pro’ly got hurt loads of times when learnin’ stuff like your spindash move an’ when you were fightin’ robots the _first_ time.  ‘S dangerous work.”

Sonic tiptoed sliding his palm down his face.  “Yeeeaaah, that’s the entire point.”

“An’ I wanna do what you do, too,” Tails pressed, leaning where he sat with such excitement that Sonic nearly held his hands out.  “I wanna go ‘round savin’ people an’ helpin’ ‘em an’ buildin’ stuff!  I can!  I can build lots of stuff an’ save things, but first starting out, I’m gonna mess up an’ get hurt a few times.  If I get that outta the way first, _then_ I can do all that stuff!” 

“Uh…”  Sonic blinked, unsure of where to even begin on this one.  “Look, I don’t think you’re really old enough to get just how… uh… hey, just how old are you, anyway?”

Tails crossed his arms stubbornly.  “ _Not_ little.”

“Tails.”

“Five,” Tails replied almost sourly.  “So I’m _not_ little, an’ don’t treat me like I’m little.”    

“Heh, 'course you’re not,” Sonic said, staving off the urge to laugh only by way of a miracle.  He knew what it was to surprise people with the unimaginable.  For all the resistance built up in the zones, no one had expected a mad scientist’s power to be bested by a twelve year old.  “Believe me, I know what it’s like to get treated like ya can’t do anything.  And I know what it’s like to have people tellin’ you what you can and can’t do.”  He also knew what it was like to bolt off and do whatever he wanted anyway, but he had a feeling this wouldn’t play any constructive part in the conversation.  “Grown-ups used to tell me that kinda stuff all the time.  I know it stinks.”

“’S that why you ran off to fight Robotnik?” Tails asked.  “To make those grown-ups sorry?”

A shake of the head.  “No.  I did it because… well, South Island had no one else.”  Even now, the gravity of that situation set its claws in deep as Sonic thought back on what had become of Green Hill Zone's faction of the resistance.  Even here, long after the dust had settled, he couldn’t bring himself to make light of it.  “If I hadn’t fought, that’d have been it, kid.  There wouldn’t have _been_ a South Island.”

“But it’s okay, now,” Tails cut in brightly.  “’Cause you stopped Robotnik an’ now South Island an’ the whole world’s got _you!_   If he gets up to anything, then, then everyone knows that you’re gonna stop him, an’ you’re gonna _punch him_ in the face!”

“Yeah, heh.”  Sonic cupped his hands in the quills behind his head.  “No pressure or anything.”

“An’ that’s why I wanna fight, jus’ like you!”

“I get that, Tails, but this is all kinda beside the point,” Sonic said.  “That being that you’re not quite ready to start fightin’ Robuttnik, yet.  You, uh…”  He scratched his head, trying to think of how in the world he was going to go about this.  The last time adults had tried to explain to _Sonic_ that he had no place in the resistance _,_ after all, he’d only taken it as a challenge. 

Tails sighed.  “I gotta get more practice, don’t I?” he asked glumly.

“Uh… well, practice sure couldn’t hurt!”  Sonic was more than eager to jump on that and run with it.  “Yeah, practice!  You gotta build up your speed, get a bit bigger, stronger!  Y’know, all that good stuff.”  He was sure there was supposed to be something in there about eating vegetables, but screw that.  “And in the meantime, you can say we’re even, if you just work on practicin’.  Staying safe, _that’s_ how you can help me out right back.”

The fox regarded him suspiciously.  “How’s it gonna help you fight Robotnik?”

Sonic grinned.  “Well, one day if I really do need help out of a fix, I’m gonna have you right there on standby and ready, right?”

Tails rested his chin in his hand, wheels clicking as he turned this over and over in his mind.  “You promise?” he asked.  “That… that when I’m ready to fight, an’ I’m big enough an’ strong enough, that I can help you stop Robotnik?” 

“Sure,” Sonic replied jovially.  “I promise.  But for now, I want ya to take it easy and do what the doctors and nurses tell you, all right?”

“Nuh uh!  Not if they wanna give me shots.  ‘Cause I don’t like shots!  I’ll run away if they try to gimme shots, Sonic!” 

“C’mon, squirt.”  Sonic actually laughed now, unable to help himself.  “I don’t think they’re gonna give ya shots.  Pretty sure they’re just gonna change the bandages on your leg once in a while and tell ya to eat what you’re given.  Though heck, I’d probably run away from _that_ before I’d run away from shots.”

 The high winds of defiance left the kid’s sails at that, and now Tails looked positively mystified.  “Food?  They’re… they’re gonna gimme food?”

“Uh… pretty sure room service is part of the deal,” Sonic said, shrugging.  “Or their try at it, heh.  But yeah, sure, whatever you really need.”

“An’ no one’s gonna come after me or yell at me for eatin’ it, Sonic?” Tails asked almost urgently.  “You promise they won’t?”

Sonic stared right back at him, flummoxed, and trying to press the scene of that early morning on Snout’s patio out of his mind.  It gradually caught pace with him anyway.  _Do they not feed this kid?  Whoever he lives with… do they not even feed him?_ “No one’s gonna take it from you, bud,” he said almost somberly.  “I promise, whatever they bring you, it’s yours.”

Tails nodded, assured enough by this to fall back against his pillow.  “Okay.  Jus’ checking.”  He gave a huge yawn, one he tried muffling behind his fists. 

“All right, kid…”  Sonic reached out to pat at the kid’s shoulder again.  “You still look pretty thrashed.  I think you better get some sleep.”

“Nuh uh…!”  Tails bit back another yawn, shaking his head so hard his ears flapped.  “Don’t wanna go to sleep ‘cause I’ll wake up and you’re gonna be gone an’ then I’ll never get to say thanks for…”  He trailed away, then found a very sudden and profound interest in the floor tiles. 

It didn’t take long for Sonic to edge the pieces together on that one.  “Hey, don’t worry about it,” he said.  “If there’s one thing I can’t stand, it’s a bully.  I’ve got even less patience for that than I do for waiting five seconds.”

“Yeah,” Tails said.  “B-but…  I wasn’t… I wasn’t cryin’ or anything.  If you think you saw that.  ‘Cause you didn’t, ‘cause I wasn’t.”

“Wouldn’t think it for a minute,” Sonic replied.  “So don’t even worry about it, all right?  And now that you’ve said it, you can get some shut-eye.”

Reluctantly, the fox nodded as he fell back against his pillow again.  “Okay.  But Sonic, are you still gonna be on West Side when I wake up?  ‘Cause I don’t wanna go to sleep if you’re jus’ gonna leave.”

Sonic forced himself to keep smiling.  “I’m gonna be here a while, pal,” he said, perhaps a smidge more grimly than he meant to.  “I think you can count on that.” 

_If Robotnik’s here after all, then I’m probably gonna be on West Side Island a lot longer than I ever wanted to._

Of course, if even he’d wanted to speak the thought out loud, he wouldn’t have had the chance.  Tails was out in a matter of seconds, ears down and lightly snoring.  The hedgehog shook his head, turning to inch past a mink nurse as she poked her head in the doorway.  Practicality told him that his side of this was done.  He could walk out and hope the fox would walk well his own way.

Conscience, however, whispered a few different ideas. 

_Wouldn’t hurt to check in on the kid before you move on, would it?_

“Eh, Snout makes a pretty good chilidog anyway,” Sonic reasoned with himself as he strolled out into the muggy evening.  He lifted his head almost longingly, quills catching a kiss of wind moving in from over the sea.  “What the heck, I can stay in town an extra day or two.”

However he justified it, he couldn’t quite chase away a stray thought of that kid asleep in the hospital bed, the very same one who had risked his own hide just for the mere _chance_ to save his hero.  Sonic couldn’t help it.  The kid had some guts, with or without experience to match.

 _What can I say,_ Sonic couldn’t help the thought as he headed for the coastline.  _Tough little guy.  I kinda like him._       

 

Escaping the hospital was a bit of a conundrum to Tails, even long after he’d made the decision the next morning after the nurse brought him breakfast.  They’d decided to keep him overnight for something called a ‘con-cushion’.  Not that he had any real idea of what _that_ was, but the fox had known from the outset that he couldn’t stay long.  He’d been a bit woozy, his head stuffed with the smoky smell of Poloy Forest, but he remembered the important bits.  One bit had become especially important, so important that he almost hadn’t slept that night.

He had gotten a promise out of Sonic.  A promise that when he was strong and fast enough, he would be the one Sonic would call on for help.

 _Well, ‘m not gonna get strong an’ fast an’ good enough to help Sonic lyin’ in a bed all day,_ Tails had concluded, while waiting for breakfast that morning.  _So I gotta start now an’ then… then, maybe…_

The nurse had brought a breakfast that had, admittedly, stolen Tails’ attention as he lost the thought in a swallow of scrambled eggs.  It was the first meal he hadn’t had to steal in weeks, and his mouth watered around every bite.  Sonic wouldn’t have blamed him, he didn’t think.  The hedgehog had promised him that the food was rightfully his, after all.

_An’ plus I gotta eat, ‘cause I can’t train when I’m hungry._

When breakfast was packed away and the nurse had ducked out with the dishes, Tails clambered out of bed to the single window across the room.  He gazed out, recognizing the general lay of the west side of town, the white sandy crescent of the nearby shoreline, the scattered businesses and tourist traps along the concrete lip of the boardwalk.  

It was a first floor room, more notably, which made an already easy escape even easier. 

Whirling up his tails, the fox hovered as long as he needed to unhitch the latch and nudge the window open with his foot.  It gave with a high creak of stiffness, hinges that likely needed some oil, and Tails pressed even harder against the glass.  Another whining squeak, but this time he jimmied it open by a couple of inches.  A few more inches followed on a third try, one that he had to stop when he swore he heard the nurse patrolling her way back down the hall. 

He went still as a statue, heart thumping, until at last those footfalls faded into a patter.

By the fifth try, he had the window about half a foot wide open.  Small as he was, that was all Tails needed as he squirmed, scratched and pawed his way through to the other side.

Free at last, he took to the sky again.

"Jus’ hold on, Sonic,” Tails said, fanning out his arms to catch the morning current.  It whipped him along, touting him like a kite over the western rooftops until he laughed out loud.  “’m gonna get stronger an’ faster an’ I’m gonna do it all so fast!” 

 _That_ would definitely have to impress Sonic, more than anything else.  The hedgehog liked everything done _fast._

And if fast was what it took, Tails would gladly knife his way on that track a thousand times.  He couldn’t help feeling as though he’d made his own promise to Sonic, in a way.  If Sonic could promise such a thing to him, then he had his own part to play to see it happen, didn’t he?  _Sonic_ wouldn’t sit back and wait.  He couldn’t even wait five seconds, he’d said so, himself.  He would go out blazing and _make_ it happen.

“An’ that’s what I’m gonna do,” Tails said, as he took off for the treetops that sprang up in thick green pillars just ahead.  “I’m gonna start right now, ‘cause I’m not gonna wait!”

With that declaration, he flew on feeling lighter and faster and stronger than he had in a week.

 

“Hold up, what do ya mean the kid’s _gone?_ ”

The old flamingo nurse manning the station gave him a harried look over her cup of coffee.  Shadowy bags hung on the dull pink feathers beneath her eyes.  “It’s just as I’ve said, Mister Hedgehog,” she said dryly.  “The fox kit in room 1A7 is gone, as of this morning.  The nurse walked in to check on him, and he was simply _gone._ ”

Sonic blinked, not quite able to believe what he was hearing.  “Love how ya say it like it’s nothing,” he said.  His foot had started tapping, a telling sign of his patience wearing thin.  “And no one’s out lookin’ for him?  Or even questioning how the heck he got out?”

“We think he might have used the window,” the nurse replied stoically.  “The window was open.  And it was a first floor room, so, at least we know that he likely didn’t injure himself any further.”

“Yeah,” Sonic intoned coldly.  “As far as you _know,_ lady.  That doesn’t mean anything.  He might’ve bumped his head again once he was out, _or_ he might be gettin’ hurt all over again, but by all means, don’t everyone jump up at once to look for a lost patient.  Nah.”

“ _Sir._ ”  The flamingo’s gaze was glassy, at best.  “We didn’t really have much of a reason to keep him.  He was likely going to be released this very afternoon anyway, so really, all this has done is cut us a few hours of him taking food and a bed from a patient who actually needs it.  Now, if you’ll excuse me –”

“How’s his guardian gonna take it?” Sonic cut in brusquely, gritting his teeth.  “You sure _they’re_ not gonna have anything to say about the fact that you just let their kid escape out the _window?_ ”

The unreservedly bored look this earned Sonic was almost chilling.  “The little Prower child doesn’t _have_ any legal guardians, sir,” she said, every word crisp and deliberate as if she were speaking to a town drunkard.  “Now if you’ll _excuse me,_ I have some _files_ to look over.”

_No guardians?_

Sonic remembered the long, slow way Tails had turned his head, while a few pieces rather uncomfortably clicked.  “All right,” he sighed, turning on heel.  “Thanks for your help,” he couldn’t help adding waspishly.

“You’re quite welcome, _sir,_ ” the nurse fired back.

What a morning, what a morning.  A simple swing around to the hospital just to pop in on the kid and see how he was, and now he was leaving with the shade of an odd feeling on his heels.  He couldn’t really describe it.  Guilt?  Pity?  Perhaps a blurry mixture of the two that left him set now on finding Tails to make absolutely certain he was okay. 

 _Heck, no one else in this zone really seems to care one way or the other,_ his conscience seethed hotly from the back of his mind.  _He’s just a little kid._

“All right, squirt,” Sonic muttered, kicking open the double doors, staring out across the western stretch of the zone.  “This’ll just be a one-time thing.  Shouldn’t take me that long to find ya.”

Ignoring the excited whispers of visitors shuffling up the stairs behind him, Sonic leaped from the first step and hit the ground running, in what he’d call first gear.  He tore off at a sixty mile per hour beat, the hospital shrinking away behind him.  The scenery blazed past, not so much the roll of a sea wave as much as it was the ripple of a rock skipped over the surface of a pond. 

Sonic could see it all, though.  Every building, every venue.  Every road that wound off every which way.  A heck of a lot slower than his usual, but he had to take it slow if he wanted to spot the kid right off.

 

Finding the kid, as it turned out, didn’t take very long at all.  Tails could fly, Sonic had seen that much.  So when the rooftops in the west gave him nothing, he headed back towards the forest where there were plenty of high vantage points.  That, and it _had_ been around the same place he’d first seen the fox in the hands of his tormentors. 

Luckily, Tails happened to be a creature of habit.  It was in that very same clearing that the hedgehog found him once more, first by a tattered trail of torn gauze, and then by the beat of the fox’s spinning tails.  Standing near the edge of the meadow, Sonic could only watch as Tails hurriedly flew from one side of the meadow to the other, looking a little winded but no worse for wear.  At least he’d kept the bandages on around his right leg.

“An’ look out, ‘cause here I come again!”  Tails zipped back to the other side of the clearing, swinging a foot out in a mighty kick at thin air.  “Yeah!  Got’cha that time!  Take _that,_ Robotnik!”

Sonic held off on stepping in.  He couldn’t have helped the smile that crept over him if he tried.

Tails flew back yet again to the other side, little fists extended, tails spinning so madly in a rotor that Sonic was almost impressed.  This time he settled for hiking his feet up, the better to launch himself from the tree that he might have crashed into, otherwise.  “I’ll get’cha this time, Robotnik, an’ then I’m gonna punch your _face_ …!  With my _fist!_ ”   

The hedgehog bit into his lip to keep from laughing.  It coupled well with a distant pang of what could have been envy in his heart.  Here the kid was, playing pretend.  All the markings of a simpler life that, once gone, never came back.  Sonic knew that firsthand, leaving behind the once carefree life of a wanderer to take that first trail down the Green Hill Zone.  No, Sonic’s own days of play pretend were long over.

Once you’d fled a roiling wave of lava, once you’d escaped the belly of a stone labyrinth as it drank eternal to drown you, once you’d seen Scrap Brain Zone, there _was_ no more pretending.

“Got’cha again!  I got’cha!  Yeah, ‘cause you’re too slow, Robotnik!”  Tails was swinging his fists in wild, untrained strikes down on the other end of the meadow.  Punching absolutely nothing, but doing a fine job of it.  “Oh yeah?  Well I’ll show _you_ who’s too little!  I’m gonna get’cha again, ‘cause you’re…!  ‘Cause you’re dumb, an’ you’re slow, an’ I’m gonna…!” 

“Whoa, whoa there, kid.  Take it easy,” Sonic finally said.  He chuckled when the fox yelped and spun, thunderstruck as Sonic walked into the clearing.  “I think the poor guy’s had enough.”

“How…?!  Sonic…?”

“That’d be me.”

“But how’d you even _find_ me?” Tails asked crossly, lowering himself to the ground before landing on his feet.  “’Cause I didn’t leave a note or anything ‘bout where I was goin’.  So even if the nurse told on me, no one should’ve been able to find me.”

Sonic laughed.  “You forget who you’re talkin’ to, kid?  _Fastest_ guy on the planet?  Too fast for the naked eye?  Blue Blur?  Ringin’ any bells?  It takes a lot more than not leavin’ a note to lose _me._ ”

Tails seemed to contemplate this for only a couple seconds before he was satisfied.  “Yeah, guess you’re right,” he said, and then he looked enthralled, those blue eyes sparkling.  “I should’ve _known_ you were lots faster than the TV an’ the other people said!  I bet you ran ‘round the whole zone, like, a whole billion times lookin’ for me!”  Then in yet another flicker, the wonder vanished from the fox’s expression.  He canted his head.  “Why… _did_ you come lookin’ for me?”

“Just wanted to pop in real quick and see how you were holdin’ up,” Sonic replied evenly.  “And that brings us to _my_ question: why’d you take off from the hospital, squirt?  C’mon, the food wasn’t _that_ bad, was it?”

“Nuh uh!  They gave me eggs an’ pancakes with juice an’ fruit,” Tails chirruped.  His tails were even wagging a little at the recollection.  “It was all actually fresh food, Sonic!  I didn’t have to take it out the garbage or anything!”

“So why’d you do it?” Sonic asked, frowning.  That last bit by itself was enough to stir the unease he’d felt after his brief conversation with the nurse.  _No legal guardians, so no,_ he answered that once nagging question of yesterday evening.  _No, I guess they_ don’t _ever feed him._

Brows furrowing, the fox suddenly became very fascinated with his sneakers.  “I dunno,” he muttered with a pouty shrug. 

“You don’t know, huh?”  Sonic’s foot began tapping.  “Y’know, somehow I’m not sure I’m buyin’ it.”  Not that Tails was selling it all that well, but there was more to it than that.  Tails wasn't a dumb kid, Sonic could see that.  There was a certain spark, a spirit of quickness in the kid’s eyes that spoke of something ostensibly hanging beneath the surface, something Sonic couldn’t quite pin down.   “You had a roof over your head, a free bed to sleep in, you had a free meal, even.  So I’m not sure why you’d wanna bail out so quick.”

Tails kicked at the grass with his sneaker.  “I…  Nuh uh.”  He shook his head, so hard yet again that his ears fluttered.  “Nuh uh, ‘cause you’re jus’ gonna laugh.”

“Hey, might as well not get all shy on me now,” Sonic said.  “I mean, I found ya, didn’t I?  So c’mon, tell me why you’re out here instead of restin’ up like you were supposed to.”

Cornered, the fox hung his head as if he’d been caught robbing a bank.  “Came out here to start trainin’,” he muttered sullenly.  “’Cause ‘m not gonna get strong an’ fast enough for you to… to need my help, if I’m jus’ lying in bed all day.”

“Is that why you were…?”  Sonic trailed off, then smiled.  “Training, huh?  Guess you’re not the kind to wait around either, are ya?”

“Nope!”  Tails seemed to immediately seize that as encouragement.  “I’m gonna be jus’ like you, Sonic!  I’m gonna protect this island an’ all the people an’ stop Robotnik an’ be a big hero, too!” 

“Kid, I...”

“Huh?  What is it, Sonic?”

What was it, indeed.  Sonic wasn’t all too sure how to go about the not-so-pleasant realities bubbling beneath that varnished surface of heroics.  Heck, he didn’t know how to go about explaining it to anyone his own age, nevermind a five year old child who only saw the cocky one-liners, the exploding robots and cheering crowds that waited in the aftermath.  The media had a less than reverent attitude about the whole affair. 

Instinct told the hedgehog that he could try, but he wouldn’t get very far. 

“Y’know what, kiddo, I’m gonna make you a deal,” Sonic said instead, opting to tackle this from another angle.  “How about I… uh… help you train a little bit for a couple days or so?  Help you get started.”

The look on Tails’ face could have shamed the light of the sun itself.  “ _Whaaat?!_ ” he shouted, sending a few feral birds flapping their way out of the treetops above.  “You…!  You, you wanna train _me?!_ You wanna… wait a minute.”  His look became defiantly wary again.  “Why?  How come, Sonic?  ‘Cause I’m jus’ a kid you jus’ met, and… well…”

“Well, what?”

Tails shrugged.  “I’m jus’ a dumb little kid,” he said quietly.  “An’… it’s not like you got much reason to like me.  None of the other kids do.  So, so if you’re doin’ this as a joke or somethin’ then, then you can go ahead an’ laugh, now.  I promise I’m not gonna be mad.”

Sonic opened his mouth to argue, then closed it around the memory of their first actual meeting, when the fox would have been beaten to a pulp if he hadn’t stepped in.  Then of course there was the old man Snout, who had been more than happy to take a broom to the kid as if he were any other feral animal wandering around his patio.  Then of course there was the nurse, who didn’t seem moved one way or the other that Tails didn’t have _anyone_ looking out for him.

 _Literally no one,_ Sonic marveled with a pang of a different sort in his chest.  _No one at all._

“Hey, bud…”  Sonic reached out to clasp a hand on Tails’ shoulder.  When he looked up, Sonic was careful to keep his tone gentle, as gentle as he could make it.  “Listen.  I promise you, I don’t joke about that kinda stuff.  I’m a lot of things, Tails, but a bully’s not one of ‘em.  You got that?”

Tails nodded.

“Good.”  Sonic drew his hand back into a fist to nudge him on the arm, winking.  “And second, I also promise you that I’m not jokin’ about helping you get started.  We all gotta start somewhere if we’re gonna be fightin’ ol’ Robuttnik, right?”

Once again, Tails nodded. 

“But if you’re thinkin’ there’s a catch, well, you’re kinda half right about that,” Sonic said.  “If I help ya get started, you promise to keep practicin’ until you’re… well, a little bigger, before you go throwin’ yourself at any more buzzbombers?” 

Now Tails saw it fit to interject, ears swiveling back.  “Bigger?” he asked suspiciously.  “How much bigger do I gotta be, Sonic?”

“A few more years bigger, squirt,” Sonic said, reaching up to ruffle the fur between Tails’ ears.

“ _Years?_ ” Tails cried, positively outraged.  “But years are like… _forever!_ Those’re entire _years,_ Sonic!” 

“But hey, at least you’ll have a good training regimen to get ya started, right?” Sonic asked.  “Because I’m only gonna help you if you promise me that, big guy.  You’re just gonna have to take it or leave it.”  _And maybe by then you’ll be into other stuff.  Maybe by then you’ll have other heroes.  Maybe you’ll make a few friends.  Maybe you’ll wanna do other things._ It was about the best solution Sonic could puzzle out from where he was standing.

Once again, the kid was cornered.  His ears flat, Tails crossed his arms and glared at nothing in particular as he did what Sonic could safely bet all kids did: search for a compromise, a loophole, anything and everything to squirm free of what was otherwise a perfect deal.  He smirked.  It was almost like watching himself when he was just a little younger, when the grown-ups of Green Hill Zone were trying to keep him from zipping off.

“What do you think?”  Sonic extended a hand, the better to finalize it all.  “Do we have a deal?”

Tails’ ears pricked right back up as he reached out, once more taking one of Sonic’s hands in both of his.  “Deal!” he said.  “When are we gonna start training, Sonic?” 

“We can right now, if you want,” Sonic replied.  “But first, I wanna get a look at that leg of yours.”

Tails stepped back, lifting his leg to better flash the bandages around it.  “Uh… y’mean this?  Sonic, that’s nothin’!  I got plenty worse when I firs’ started flyin’!”

“Yeah, that reminds me, I don’t think I’ve _ever_ seen a flying fox before,” Sonic remarked as he knelt down towards Tails’ leg.  He reached up, if only to untuck the gauze just so before loosing the bandage.  “How long have you been able to do _that?_ ”

“Mm… Long as I can remember,” Tails said.  “I remember, ‘cause I was a little kid when I found out I could do it.”

Sonic snorted.  “When you _were_ a little kid, huh?”  The wound didn’t seem too bad off.  The skin didn’t look blistered anymore, and the bleeding had long stopped.

Tails gave a sagely nod, one that almost had Sonic laughing right there.  “Yuh huh.  ‘Cause I also remember I got the idea when, um, when I saw the propellers on my dad’s old model spinnin’ an’ I jus’ started spinning my tails around an’ then I jus’ _flew!_ ”

“Huh.  Well that’s pretty cool!”

“It _is?_ ”  Tails stared at him as if he’d grown an extra head.  “’Cause most of the other kids jus’ laugh at me when I do it.  They don’t think it’s cool.  They think it’s weird an’ they call me a freak.” 

Laying the gauze back down in meticulous strips, Sonic found himself glaring into Tails’ leg as he worked.  “Sounds to me like that’s because they’re jealous,” he said.

“That’s why I try not to fly ‘round ‘em,” Tails continued, staring again at the toe of his sneaker.  “’Cause I think maybe if I don’t fly or build things around ‘em then they’ll wanna be my friends someday.” 

Sonic knotted the gauze back up.  He’d have to check it over in a few hours or so, but for now, the kid was in as good a shape as he was going to get.  “We can… talk about that a little later, squirt.”  Sonic stood, awarding the kid a thumbs up.  “But for now, how ‘bout we really start juicin’?”

 _Because what could it hurt?_ Sonic figured. _Sure.  Let the kid tag along a couple days, make sure he’s all right, then it’s off on the trails again._

Tails looked as excited as he could get, wagging both his tails so hard that he nearly trembled.  “Yeah!  Yeah, Sonic, I’m ready!  Let’s go!!” 

“All right, well, today we’re gonna start off easy.  You gotta start any training session off with some stretchin’…”


	5. Training Days

“Nuh uh, Sonic!  It’s fine, I don’t gotta put anything on it!” 

Sonic regarded him with a raised eye ridge.  He had barely crossed into the meadow, an empty coconut’s worth of salve in hand.  The mixture had set right in its time on the campfire; Sonic could _feel_ the bite of some of the herbs as the cool smell of them stung his nose.  “Tails, c’mon.  It might sting a little at first, but at least you’re not gonna have any scars.”

“But the blisters are all gone,” Tails argued, doubling back like a vampire from a crucifix.  “It’ll be fine!  Scars are _cool!_ ” 

“Tails.”  Sonic pointed again to the flat mossy rock on the clearing’s southern edge, where Tails had been contentedly sitting while waiting for breakfast that morning.  “C’mon, pal.  Sit.  And before you get any ideas,” he intoned, when he could see said ideas glimmering impishly in Tails’ eyes, “Juuust remember who you’d be runnin’ from.”

“I can _fly,_ ” Tails grumbled petulantly.

“So can Robotnik when he’s in that hover-thing of his,” Sonic pointed out.  “Takes more than that to stop me.”

Tails gave a rather blustery sigh, but didn’t argue.  He shuffled back to the rock and sat, looking dejected as Sonic knelt by him and made swift work of the bandages.  The good news was that the small wound had healed up nicely.  It was just a matter of ensuring that it wouldn’t scar and leave the kid with a nice bald patch when the fur refused to grow back. 

Sonic gave the salve another quick mix with the makeshift mortar he’d made of a rock, then began to dab at the wound.  It fizzed a little, which Sonic took for a good sign.  It meant the antiseptic herbs were working.  Tails sat and waited impatiently.

“No flinchin’?” Sonic asked.

“Nuh uh.  No flinchin’,” Tails said, his look cheekily brave.

Sonic smirked his approval.  “You’re a tough little guy, y’know that?”  He smoothed on an extra layer of the salve just in case.  He was no medic, but he knew enough about treating wounds on the field to be confident.  “All right, I think that about does it!”

“Okay, okay, can we eat now?” Tails asked as Sonic folded the gauze back around his leg.  “’Cause I’ve never had pancakes cooked over a _fire_ before!”

“Yeah, yeah, sure.”

Sonic had started Tails’ “training regimen” just yesterday, but so far he couldn’t say he had any regrets.  The kid had kept him late at the little campfire he made near the edge of the clearing, chattering to him – _man_ the kid could talk, rattle on for _hours_ if you let him – and bombarding him with questions.  All the usual ones Sonic expected: what the first fight with Robotnik was like, how he got to be so fast, what he would eat if he _had_ to give up chilidogs.  Sonic had given all his usual answers: worthwhile because he’d known it to be the right thing, a lot of running, and hamburgers since at least you could cheat a little and slap chili on them, too.

Tails had risen with the sun that morning, shaking Sonic awake where he’d crooked himself at the foot of a huge palm tree.  He’d woken to those huge blue eyes hanging inches from his and nearly swung a fist out, if not for his reflexes moving like his feet to stop him.

Overall, Sonic mused as he stoked the fire, he couldn’t say he was racing to get back on his way.  He liked Tails.  Maybe he talked a little too much sometimes, but Sonic nonchalantly granted that as part of the package.  Tails was just a kid being a kid.

“All right, that should just about do it.”  Sonic watched the flames stretch up from beneath the small teepee of logs, coughing out a few puffs of smoke.  “That should be hot enough.”

“Man, I can’t wait!  I’m starvin’!”

“Heh, just wait a sec.”

From his pack, Sonic produced a small cast iron pan and held it up, letting the flames lick up the bottom before he got to work with the little box of instant mix he’d bought in town.  Just add water and ta-da, pancakes.  A master chef, Sonic was not. 

“Are they gonna be ready soon?” Tails asked eagerly.  He leaned on the edge of the rock, tails wagging again.  “I bet they’re gonna be great!”

“Take it easy.  I may be fast, but that doesn’t mean I can cook these any faster.”  Sonic stirred up and poured out the batter as best as he could over the already hot length of the pan, watching the mixture bubble before flipping it.  At least it wasn’t burnt to a crisp, as per Sonic’s usual.

“Hey, Sonic?  Do you drink coffee in the morning?” Tails asked, breaking a silence that never tended to last when he was around.  “’Cause lots of people that eat at ol’ Snout’s drink coffee with their stuff in the morning.”

Sonic scowled.  “Nah.  Not really my thing.  That stuff’s for people who’re too slow to get up an’ goin’ on their own.  Old people,” he clarified before Tails could ask. 

Tails giggled, pleased with that answer.  “Yeah, I don’t like it either,” he said.  “I tried it once out of a paper cup I took, and it was _gross._ I dunno why old people would wanna drink somethin’ that yucky, Sonic.  I spat it out.”

Turning the flapjack again, Sonic saw an opportunity he wasn’t so sure he wished to take.  “Hey, kid?  You mind if I ask you something?”

“Me?” Tails glanced at him hopefully.  “Okay, Sonic!  What?”

“You…”  Sonic paused, trying to think of some way to soften this.  There was none.  “Listen, is the reason you take stuff from Snout’s place because you don’t have anyone feedin’ you?  Don’t you have _anyone_ gettin’ you food?”

Hope extinguished, Tails looked away.  “Nope,” he said very quietly, very stiffly.  “An’ I tried to pay for stuff at first, Sonic, I did.  But the other kids kept… they needed the rings more than I did.”

“Needed ‘em, or took ‘em from you?” Sonic asked flatly.

Tails shrugged, the distracted way he tended to whenever he didn’t wish to actually answer.  “Both, I guess.  ‘Cause they wouldn’t’ve taken ‘em if they didn’t need ‘em.  And if they’re gonna be my friends someday, then–”

“Bud, listen.”  Sonic turned the flapjack again, before setting the pan off the fire to keep it from burning.  “Kids that’re mean to you like that?  Kids that hit you and swipe your stuff?  They’re _not_ your friends, Tails.”

“Not yet, they aren’t,” Tails said.  He looked up at Sonic and brightened.  “But they will be!  If I tell ‘em that I got training from _you,_ Sonic, then they’ll wanna be friends an’ play with me!” 

“Is that why you even agreed to our little deal?”

“Nuh uh.”  Tails frowned.  “I agreed ‘cause I wanna be a hero and stop Robotnik.  But if the other kids see me get training from you, then they’ll know I’m gonna be a big cool hero, too!”

“I just wanna make sure you’re doin’ all this for the right reasons.”  Sonic made certain to look Tails straight in the eye.  “And if there’s one thing I want you to know, it’s that you don’t _need_ friends like that.  If they were only gonna be friends with you because you were hangin’ out with me, then they aren’t your friends.  Not really.”

Tails glowered back at him, affronted.  “They… they _would_ be,” he insisted.  “They’d wanna hang out with me and then when they got to know me, they would…!” 

Sonic was already shaking his head.  “At first, maybe,” he agreed.  “But a week or so after I’m gone?  It’ll go right back to the way it was.  You’ve got my promise on that, Tails.”  He felt the truth clawing its way out as he said it, digging and twisting as he said it.  Sonic had to tell himself that he was just calling a spade a spade, giving the fox all the brutal, fundamental honesty he would need in the days after his hedgehog hero hit the road.  Telling the truth was just about all Sonic knew. 

But as it happened, telling the truth really sucked sometimes. 

“Do you really think so?” Tails asked in a tiny voice.  “Is… is that what you think, Sonic?”

The hedgehog swallowed against the molten ball of lead sitting now in his chest.  His appetite vanished completely.  “Well, I mean… I’m sorry, squirt.  I probably could have said it better, but I just wanna make sure you’re gonna be okay when I leave.  Don’t you have _any_ friends to look out for you, here?  Don’t you have any family?”

“Nope,” Tails said with a slow shake of his head.  “Been on my own for a long time.”

“You said somethin’ about your folks, though,” Sonic said.  “About your old man and his models…?”

“My mom an’ dad are both… I dunno where they are.” 

“Don’t you remember anything about what happened to ‘em?  About where they are?”

Tails gave yet another lifeless shrug.  “I remember they brought me to this zone one night an’ they hid me in the woods an’ told me I had to stay there until they came back.  I'm not sure what they were tryin’ to hide me from, but it must’ve been really scary like a _monster,_ or something.”

Sonic only faintly realized a second later that his hands had drawn up into fists.  He knew how these particular stories ended.  “They never came back to get you, did they?” he asked gently. 

“All they got left is their secret shop on Cocoa Island,” Tails replied.  “I go there sometimes with the Sea Fox, but they’re not over there, I already looked.”

“Sea Fox?” Sonic cocked his head.  “Not sure I follow, kid.”

Tails suddenly looked eager.  “I’ll show ya after breakfast!  But first we gotta _eat_ breakfast, Sonic, so c’mon an’ hurry up!” 

Mouth twitching with half a smile, Sonic picked the pan up and slowly but surely finished off the first pancake of what would be a short stack.

 

To say that Tails was nervous about showing Sonic the Sea Fox would be a cruelly vast understatement.  It would be akin to saying that Sonic was a little quick on his feet, or maybe that the world was just a bit of a large place.  For Tails, he was bringing a large part of his own world out of hiding as he led Sonic along the path down to the alcove. 

Mainly, it was that always irritating _what if_ that wriggled in his brain no matter how many times he told it to shut up. 

_What if he doesn’t like it?_ Tails thought with a growing dread that threatened his breakfast.  _What if he just laughs and calls me a nerd like all the other kids do?  Sonic doesn’t build stuff.  He runs.  He doesn’t_ have _to build stuff to be cool._

He scampered along anyway, bringing Sonic off the main hiking path down to the coastline where his secret harbor waited.  Sonic wasn’t like the other zone kids who liked to laugh at or smash his things, but his memories had branded it into his head: his inventions weren’t neat.  They weren’t cool, and they didn’t win him any friends.  They were for _nerds,_ he built them because he didn’t _have_ any _real_ friends, and most of the stuff he built was _stupid._

Sure, he’d needed all his gadgets and devices for the fight on Cocoa Island, but most of them had been built from his father’s old designs.  Tails could remember finding the blueprints, rolled and taped up in what had once been the filing drawer of his dad’s old workbench.  He’d had to bust the lock on it with a stone, but he figured if it was to save the island and the Flickies, dad wouldn’t be too angry about it.  Building off of the designs had been simple enough, but his own designs, well…

“We’re meanderin’ a bit off the trail there, pal,” Sonic said from a few paces behind him, dragging Tails out of his thoughts.  “You sure this is the right way?”

“Yup,” Tails replied.  “I gotta build my stuff in secret places, ‘cause if the other kids find it then they like smashin’ it.”

Sonic narrowed his eyes.  “They do, huh?”

“Yeah.”  Tails reached out to carefully pull back a low hedge of briars.  A nice little security measure he’d set up behind him, when he went on his way farther back into the zone.  “They’d never find the Sea Fox, though!  An’ if they did, they’d get a whole bunch’a thorns for it, so even if they knew where it was they wouldn’t wanna get to it anyway.”

“Smart thinkin’,” Sonic said, grinning.  “Clever like a fox.”

Tails couldn’t help himself.  He grinned back, quickly looking off into the greenery behind his hero.  “Aw, ‘s not _that_ clever.  C’mon, she’s this way!” 

He ran in, and Sonic followed. 

They came upon the Sea Fox where she was harbored alongside the alcove, bound by a single piece of frayed rope to the dock.  Still untouched, unscratched.  Another day of relative safety where the other zone kids hadn’t found her.  Tails couldn’t remember the last time his heart thumped so loudly in his chest as he led Sonic towards the sloshing water.  The sea was almost strangely calm this morning.

“W-well,” Tails stammered, presenting the little submarine with a small wave of his arm.  “There she is.  That’s… that’s the… Sea Fox.”

Sonic strode past him for a better look.

_He’s not gonna like it,_ Tails thought, heart stopping.  His mind raced off.  _He’s not gonna like it.  He’s gonna take one look at it an’ say something like, ‘Nice boat, freak’ and laugh at it.  He’s not gonna like it.  He’s not gonna like it.  He’s not gonna wanna be my friend anymore.  He’s not gonna –_

“Whoa, Tails…!”  Sonic spun on him from the edge of the dock.  To his amazement, it wasn’t disgust on the hedgehog’s face, nor was it scorn or hateful disbelief.  “Hold on, you’re tellin’ me that you actually _built_ this?”

Tails clenched his hands up in the small of his back.  “Um… w-well, that depends,” he mumbled.  “Are you gonna call me a freak an’ laugh at me an’ run away from me if I say yes?”

Sonic rolled his eyes.  “Yeah, that’s exactly what I’m gonna… oh come on, Tails, I was just kidding!  Why would I do that, are you _crazy?_ This is awesome!”

“Awesome…?”  Tails was sure he’d heard wrong. 

“Kid.  You’re _five years old,_ and you.  Built.  A _submarine,_ ” Sonic said, speaking with slow deliberation.  “How is that not _awesome?_ ” 

Tails could hear the voices of Arms and his buddies answering _that_ question easily enough.  _“Look, guys, the little dork actually had to_ make _his own friends!  Hey, let’s see what happens when I do_ this! _”_

“’Cause…” Tails began mildly.  “’Cause the other kids, the other kids said that–”

“I don’t _care_ what _they_ said,” Sonic cut in.  He jerked a thumb over his shoulder at the Sea Fox still rocking gently on the waves.  “ _That,_ is awesome.  I don’t know _any_ kids who could build stuff like this.  Where’d ya even learn how to do it?”

Tails scratched at an ear, a habit he seemed apt to whenever he was trying to rack his brains on a problem or remember something distant.  He couldn’t really answer his hero’s question, not conventionally.  Whenever he opened a panel, began sketching up an idea or had the parts in front of him, it all simply… _clicked._ It fell with inexplicable order, perfect order, where everything made sense and served a purpose and closed a circuit and supplied power.

Even if he’d known all the proper words to explain it, Tails wasn’t so sure he’d still be able to.

“I dunno,” the fox finally said.  “I started… um… ‘cause I saw some of the stuff my dad was doing once.  And I started on my toys 'cause I wanted to see how they worked.  When I open stuff up, or when I wanna build, I jus’ know how to do it.  ‘Cause it’s there.”

Sonic didn’t look as though he understood it so clearly, to Tails’ aggravation, but he didn’t seem raring to push it.  “Heh.  Well, I may not really get this stuff, but I still think it’s cool.”

“You…”  Tails actually dared to hope for a second.  “Do you really think so?”

“Sure!  Knowing how to do stuff like that can really come in handy!”

Tails allowed himself to float on the quavering airs of cloud nine, almost unable, almost _refusing_ to believe that he’d heard _Sonic the Hedgehog_ actually call his inventions _cool._ It was almost like a dream, one that he was due to wake from any time if he wasn’t careful.  As he came to accept it, he found that the zone around them seemed much brighter than its usual this morning.

“C’mon, Tails.”  Sonic walked briskly up to him, still smiling, extending a hand.  “Let’s go see what else you’re made of!  We got some training to do!”

Grinning so wide his cheeks hurt, Tails hopped in place.

“Ready, kid?” 

“Yeah, Sonic, I’m ready!”

 

Sonic stood back against the trunk, watching as Tails ‘got ready’ on the other side of the clearing.  The fox crouched and stretched out both his legs.  Then both his arms.  Then he began to roll his shoulders.  Then with a nervous look at Sonic, he dove back into crouching and stretching out his legs some more.  Then both his arms again, as slowly as he might have if they were both broken.      

“Tails, I’m growin' a beard over here,” Sonic said, foot tapping.

“I’m still stretchin’, Sonic!” Tails shot back.

“You stretch any more and you’re gonna walk outta here taller.  C’mon, kid, stop stallin’ and show me what’cha got.”

Tails finally stood, giving Sonic a stony look.  “Fine,” he grumbled.  “But if I pull a muscle or twist somethin’ up real bad then I’m gonna get real mad at you!” 

“I can take the heat.  C’mon!  Show me!” 

Tails began to bend low to the ground, positioning himself an awful lot like Sonic would as he prepared to tuck in for a spindash.  “Up… over…” he murmured, more to himself than for Sonic to hear as his tails began to wag behind him.  “An’… gone!!” 

He leaped off in a mad sprint, huffing and puffing like a little engine as he went along.  By Sonic’s standards it was painfully slow, and those tails weren’t exactly helping Tails keep momentum as they fluttered out behind him.  He cringed, but the show wasn’t over by a long shot.  Tails started to try tucking in, pulling his head towards his own ankles…

…only to come down hard in a heap of tousled orange fur with a shrill yelp.  To make matters worse, the kid looked up at him with those big blues shining, hurt but still somehow hopeful.

Well, Sonic couldn’t bring himself to lie to him, even if he wanted to.  “Yikes,” he said.  “That was… yeah, that was a little rough.”

“Knew it,” Tails said ruefully as he laid his head down in the grass.  “I knew I couldn’t do it.  ‘s what I was tryin’ to tell you, Sonic.”

“C’mon, I didn’t say _that._   It just needs some work, that’s all.”  Sonic drew upon the fox quickly and knelt to offer his hand.  “Need some help, squirt?”

“Thanks.”  Tails took that hand in both of his and tipped Sonic a grateful nod.  “I dunno what I’m doing wrong, though!  I ran all kinds’a simulations!” 

Sonic smirked.  “Simulations, huh?  Don’t tell me you’re hidin’ a computer in the bushes somewhere out here, kid.”

“Uh… w-well, not exactly,” Tails mumbled, scratching at an ear.  “More like… hold on, jus’ a sec!”  He retreated into the brush, leaving Sonic staring curiously after him.  Thankfully the wait wasn’t long, as Tails returned with what looked like a tiny red robot action figure in his hands, one that had seen its fair share of playtime judging by the scuffs and scratches.  Undoubtedly another of his things that Tails had to keep hidden if he didn’t want to see it broken.  “See?  It works ‘cause it can bend up enough to show me how to do it!” 

It was another moment Sonic wanted to laugh, despite knowing how it could damage the footing between them.  Tails likely wouldn’t take it well, given what experience had taught him of what people laughing usually meant.  “That’s some good thinkin’, Tails, but some things you can’t really get out of a… simulation.”

“Yeah, an’ that’s why I practice,” Tails replied.  “I try to come out here an’ practice a whole lot!  But I still dunno what I’m doin’ wrong, ‘cause I always end up on the ground like that!”  He turned and kicked at the grass angrily.  “I think it’s these dumb tails getting in my way.” 

“Hm… they’re not really helpin’ you that much, flyin’ loose as they are,” Sonic agreed.  He couldn’t quite shake the pull of an idea forming near the back of his mind.  “But you gotta work with what you’re given, right?”

“What if I tied ‘em together, Sonic?” Tails asked.  “We could get a bunch’a rubber bands!  It’d take like a whole million zillion of ‘em, though, ‘cause my tails are pretty strong from all that flying, but if we made ‘em too tight then that wouldn’t be good.”

Sonic shook his head, chuckling.  “That’s not what I was thinkin’, Tails,” he said.  “That’d just be a pain in the spines.  But y’know how you use ‘em to fly through the air?”

Tails blinked.  “Yeah…?”

“Well, call me crazy, but what if we tried something a little different…”

 

Maybe Sonic had simply lost track of time, but evening fell upon the forest at nearly too quick a beat, even for him.  By the time Tails had improved his speed through the meadow by a whole five seconds, he was ready for supper.  Tails didn’t seem so intent on arguing when Sonic told him to wait, while he made a dash to Snout’s for dinner.  Free chilidogs were as good a meal as any, and Sonic had entire takeout boxes full of them as he dashed back.

“Sorry it took so long.”

“You were only gone for ‘bout twenty seconds, Sonic!  I counted!”

“Like I said, sorry it took so long.”  Sonic opened up one of the boxes and courteously extended it.  “Have a dog or two, champ.”

“You really mean I can have some of _your_ chilidogs?” Tails asked in awe.  He gaped up at Sonic as if he were on the brink of sacrilege.

“That’d be why I brought back ten boxes of ‘em.  Eat all you want.  You wanna go faster, you gotta fuel up.”

Did Tails eat up, all right.  The kid tore right through about five chilidogs right on the spot with a fervor that both surprised and disturbed Sonic while he started in on the campfire.  He ate with a zeal that forced Sonic to notice at last just how skinny he was, how frail he looked, how much frailer he might have been under all that orange fluff. 

_They don’t feed him._

Sonic struck at the stone he held in one hand with the flint edge, showering the dead leaves in bright yellow sparks.  “Slow down, kid,” he said as Tails reached for his sixth dog.  “Never thought I’d hear _those_ words comin’ outta my mouth.”

Tails narrowly dodged laughing with a mouthful of food.  “Sorry, Sonic.  ‘m hungry!!”

_Yeah.  And that’s one of the things wrong with this picture._

“I get that, but you don’t wanna hurt your stomach,” Sonic said instead.  “Slow down.  You’ll probably like ‘em a little more if you taste them.”

Once the fire was blazing, they both found time enough to enjoy a few free chilidogs in what Sonic would now call a gracious quiet.  Tails was just a bit too preoccupied with food to make much chatter, and that left the hedgehog well enough alone with his own thoughts.  He would need all the quiet he could get to sort them out.

It wasn’t right, this much he knew.  None of what the kid was suffering was right, living out in the wilderness on his own until his hunger drove him to the township.  Five years old, and there was no telling just how long Tails had actually been out here without… anyone.

Sonic hadn’t gotten much of a chance to look around town for some kind of orphanage or home for lost children, either.  He’d have to see if the local police would be able to do anything with him, and that in itself was the key phrase, there.  If Tails didn’t want to go with them, would they _be able_ to do anything with him?  They sure as heck hadn’t had much luck trying to tie Sonic down to some foster home when he could just tear off with his trail blazing, nevermind a kid who could literally fly away.  Tails would have to trust whoever the police handed him off to.  The way things were now, the entirety of Emerald Hill Zone hadn’t given the kid a single reason to trust any of them.

“Hey, Sonic?”

Sonic jolted a bit before he looked up.  “Yeah?  You finished, kid?”

“Uh huh…” Tails mumbled.  “But I was also thinkin’ and wanted to ask you somethin’.”

More like another round of twenty questions, and Sonic braced himself accordingly.  “Sure, Tails.  Lay it on me.”

Tails flipped one last bite of his last chilidog into his mouth.  “So… so I know you’re not gonna stay in the zone forever, ‘cause you gotta go after Robotnik.  And you gotta fight bad guys an’ save everyone an’ stuff.  Right?”  While he seemed to acknowledge those facts as he spoke them, still, there was no denying the hurt in him as he looked up at Sonic wistfully.

Sonic sighed.  Was there any point softening the blow?  “Yeah, bud.  I mean, that’s just how it goes.  Birds gotta fly, fish gotta swim, I gotta go after Egg Belly.”

“Right… so….” 

“What?”

Tails scuffed at the dirt anxiously.  “So I was wonderin’… we’re friends now, right, Sonic?  Do you like me?”  It wasn’t lost on Sonic that Tails refused to look him in the eye as he posed that question.

_Probably because he’s used to either hearing no or getting yanked around._

It almost disheartened Sonic from even answering.  Tails’ expression didn’t seem expectant one way or the other; it was a face beaten down simply by what he’d become used to.  The kid didn’t want to harbor any illusions, but the past couple of days had treacherously found his guard coming down. 

So Sonic did what most others could stand to do.  He smiled.  “Definitely pals,” he said.

Tails was astonished.  “You…!  You really mean it?!”

Sonic laughed brightly.  “Sure, why not?” he asked, meaning every word.  Tails was a pretty neat little guy to have met on his travels, after all.  He’d actually miss him a bit when the time came to move on.  “Of all the people in this zone, I’d say you’ve been my go-to buddy.”

“Then…!”  Tails hopped up from where he’d been sitting on the edge of his rock, his hands in tiny fists over his chest.  The kid was shining, emanating sheer adoration that struck at the hedgehog’s conscience the way he could strum an E chord on a downbeat.  “Then I just want you to promise me somethin’ real quick, and I want you to promise me ‘cause now I know we’re friends, okay?”

“Uh, that depends what it is, Tails,” Sonic said guardedly.  “What is it?”

He didn’t seem the least bit discouraged.  “I want you to promise that you’ll come back to this zone an’ visit me some day,” he said.  “Maybe after you beat up Robotnik again, but you gotta come back!  I want you to promise that we’re gonna be friends forever!”

Absurd relief spiked in Sonic’s chest.  “Friends forever, huh?”  The idea in itself was so hopelessly young, even for his meager twelve years.  “Y’know, what the heck, I think I can keep that one.”  He held out a fist, much to Tails’ confusion.  “Bump it!” 

“Bump it?”

“Yeah.  Y’know, bump it!  Your fist against mine.  Here, hold yours out.”

Tails awkwardly held his fist out at an angle, and Sonic bumped their knuckles gently together.  “Oh!”  Realization crept on his face.  “Oh, okay!  Bump it!  Yeah!” 

“It’s what makes it official.”

“Cool!”  Tails stared down at his own fist, as if it now held some mythic symbol of their contract.  “I’ve never had a friend do _that_ with me before,” he said offhandedly.  “’Cause most of the time when someone holds their fist out it’s ‘cause they _don’t_ wanna be my friend.”

Sonic reached up to noogie the fur between Tails’ ears.  “Times change, squirt.  And speakin’ of time, it might be time for us to get some shut eye here in a bit.” 

Fortunately, Tails didn’t seem apt to arguing around a yawn.  “Yeah… ‘m gettin’ kinda tired,” he remarked.  “’Cause I trained real hard today, huh, Sonic?”

“Yeah, Tails.  You did.”

“I gotta practice harder tomorrow,” Tails went on, though he was sliding off the rock to nestle in the tall grass, an unusual behavior for him this close to bedtime.  “Hey, Sonic?”

“Hm?”

Tails laxly rubbed his eyes.  “I was wonderin’ somethin’ else, too.

“Lay it on me while I’m young.”

“I was wonderin’ if I could sleep down here on the ground,” Tails said.  “Down here with you.  An’ not up high, tonight.”

Sonic rightly predicted that question.  Over the past couple of days, Tails had been adamant on sleeping up in the high fork of the tree looming over Sonic’s campsite.  The kid apparently knew there were greater dangers lurking in the zones than a few bullies waiting to take your rings and smash your toys. 

The fact that Tails now trusted his luck on the ground spoke great volumes about how far he trusted Sonic himself, and the hedgehog wasn’t going to take that lightly.

“Hey, it’s not up to me where you sleep,” Sonic said.  He settled at the foot of a gnarled stump, hands folded behind his head.  “You wanna take the ground, take the ground.”

The fox was already making himself right at home, curling up to hug onto one of his own tails.  “Promise you’re not gonna let wild animals gobble me up?” Tails whispered.

“I’ll give it my best shot, kid.”

“Good.”  Tails flattened his ears a little, stretching his way into another yawn.  Then he curled almost cat-like into a ball and began to snore lightly, bathed in the warmth of Sonic’s fire.  He was out like a light, dead tired.

Sonic was up late, for yet another night, thinking.

He looked up to a black swoop of sky dotted in stars, he listened to the flames snap through the logs, he pricked an ear to a salty ocean wind coasting up from the southwest.  However freeing it might have been on any other night, these past few days had been a little different, not that he could admit it.  His watch fell over the now sleeping kit across the fire from him, the perfect picture of blissful contentedness. 

_What am I gonna_ do _with this kid, though?_

An excellent question, and one he had yet to really find an answer for.  Or an answer that sat well with him, rather.  The local police could likely do something with him for the time being, but then that brought Sonic around to question why they hadn’t done anything sooner, what the hold-up was, why they didn’t seem too bothered by it.  It also brought about the question as to whether or not anything they did would stick. 

_How do you keep a kid around who can fly if he decides he doesn’t like it?_

It was a dilemma that none of the zone residents seemed eager to fix.  Tails needed someone he could trust, and truthfully?  Sonic wasn’t so sure anyone in Emerald Hill _could_ be relied on to get the job done.  They were complacent enough in their own lots without the complication of a kid who had spent possibly years alone in the wild.

_But it’ll have to do,_ his conscience pressed.  _Not like he has anywhere else to go, any safer place to be._

He let out a low, drawn breath, hitching his foot up over his knee.  “Man.”

More than anything, he just wanted to see this kid safe, fed, and maybe making a few friends to treat him right for crying out loud.  For all his chatter, Tails was a good kid and a living miracle that the wild hadn’t twisted his heart and forged something meaner out of him.  He deserved it.

“What’s even happened to me,” Sonic mused, his mouth quirking a little.  “I’m actually slowin’ down for sadsack stuff like this.  No offense, but you’re crampin’ my style, Tails.”

Tails gave another soft puppy snore in the grass.

“Guess we’ll figure it out tomorrow,” Sonic promised himself, tipping his head to stolidly call it a night.  “I’ll figure out _somethin’_ to do with you.”

He didn’t miss the tiny, flashing red eye of a buzzbomber shooting like a comet over the clearing.  No, Sonic’s senses were a bit too sharp to forgive that, and as he lifted his head he remembered all too clearly everything Tails had said.  He _couldn’t_ stay here forever.  Robotnik was out there somewhere, and like any vagary of the wind, Sonic would have to up and whistle his way down another unknown road to give chase.

“It’s gonna have to be soon.”

Sonic didn’t think he would actually sleep tonight, but he drifted over that foggy edge with that mere thought hanging on his mind.

_Sorry kid, but it’s gonna have to be soon._


	6. An Attack and A Promise

It probably would have surprised no one that Sonic usually dreamed about running.  His feet twitched as he slept, he’d been told.  He dreamed of bigger, greater zones out there, keeping the horizons in sharp colorful focus as he ran to greet them.  Some things, in his dreams, he kept in blurry black and white for the clutter it was.  He blurred pictures and possibilities alike, dark _what ifs_ that were yet unrealized. 

Robotnik gaining all six of South Island’s emeralds.  The muffled implosion of a badnik as it released one of his old friends, screaming, to the ground.  Screaming, Sonic could handle.  It was when they fell limp as if they’d been shot out of their metal casing, now _that_ woke him with a chill that ran staccato down his spine.

So Sonic ran, even in his dreams.  It was the one thing he was measurably good at.

Tonight was no different, really.  He was running along Green Hill as the sun sank over the sea, feet blazing from a trot to about ninety miles per hour, not bad for a warm up.  The scene rolled green and gold and orange all around him, and he could feel the indentions of his footfalls on the springy grass.  He loosed another notch and sped up, the better to whip his way over and through the rocky loop-de-loop-

_“NO!!_ ” 

He woke to a scream and a swoosh of fire.

The thunk of bullets, the spluttered crack of wood.

Sonic woke with his heart crammed up like a tarantula in his throat, and he realized these things were not part of the dream.  He had rolled backward on baseless instinct, barely dodging an arc of bullets that hammered at the base of his stump.  His ears were already perked, his limbs weightless, jittery with a fresh surge of adrenaline.

He snapped his eyes open to a bright crescent of orange and yellow flames, tongues lolling over the tall grass like one of the sea’s foamy ringlets.  He tasted the wood smoke before it crept down his throat, leaving him coughing and shielding his eyes. 

The forest was _catching fire._

“Tails…?!” Sonic’s brain wasn’t too far behind his feet as he looked around wildly.  “Tails!!  Tails, where are you?!”

Frantically, he searched the grounds for any sign of the fox.  He had no idea what time it was, but it was near dawn, that much he could see by the weak shaft of morning light that slipped through the trees.  Tails wasn’t in the tall grass across from him, thank goodness for that much.  But that left him only the mystery of what in the world was going on.

Not that it was any small mystery, given the buzzbomber from last night.

“Just couldn’t hold off for another couple of hours, could you, Egg Belly,” Sonic snarled.  Leaping over the low hedge of fire, he ran farther into the shadier parts of the woods.  It was more than likely that Tails had let his own instincts take over to haul his furry butt up to high ground where it was safe.  “Tails?  Tails?  Tails!!” 

No answer.

Sonic swept a hawk’s gaze up through the treetops, wishing that he had a little more daylight to work with.  If Tails had stayed alive for this long, chances were the kid knew how to vanish where it counted.  “Tails!  C’mon buddy, it’s me!  Can you lemme know you’re here somewhere?  You know, gimme a sign?”

Still no answer. 

_Wrong.  Something's wrong._ Every last one of Sonic’s gut feelings swooped in to tell him as if they were waiting in a conga line.  _Wrong.  Something’s wrong, here.  Something’s not right.  Wrong, something's wrong, something's wrong._

Sonic wanted to tell himself he was overthinking it, that Tails was just scared and doing as small fry among the animals would, which was hide and not come out for anything. 

He also knew it was a load of bull.

If Robotnik had paid his camp a visit, it sure as heck wasn’t just to say ‘hi’ until next time.

“ _SONIC!!_ ” 

A scream, a bit far off but dead ahead.  The voice unmistakable. 

Sonic tore after the sound and let the forest taper off into a haze around him.  He quickly spun his way around a pair of palms, sped through another aisle of trees, and flipped high over the underbrush to land seamlessly on his feet and bolt off again.  Young as he was, he’d gotten accustomed to tracking everything as it came. 

“Tails, I’m on my way!!”  Sonic wasn’t sure who he was trying to reassure.  He only knew of the panic spurring his heels with snapping teeth. 

The forest faded into another grassy expanse that rolled flat for a while before you could hit the jungle’s outskirts. 

 Running for everything he was worth down that field was Tails, puffing hard, tails still flagging out over his heels.  Their practice yesterday was likely forgotten in whorls of terror.  Swooping in from above was none other than the egg-bellied scientist himself, gliding safely along in that swoop-bottomed hovercraft.  Unsheathed from its lower compartment was a bright yellow grappling claw.

Sonic didn’t need three guesses to know what he was up to.

“ _Tails!!_ ” 

He sped up, it was the only thing he could do, hoping it would be enough.  His gut feelings were about as kind to him on that matter as they had been in the forest: it wouldn’t, it wouldn’t be enough.  Robotnik was moving in too close and Tails wasn’t quick enough. 

“ _Sonic!!  Sonic, help me!!_ ”

“Keep runnin’, bud!!”  Sonic shouted anyway.  “Just keep runnin’!!”  He whipped his head up a little, his glare malevolent.  “ _Robotnik!!_ Robotnik, you do this, and I’m gonna…!” 

The claw snapped shut before he could so much as finish the thought.  Tails let out a high shriek, and the claw tightened with a pitiless whir of hydraulics.  Sonic could see the fox flailing his free arm, kicking his free leg, spinning his free tail in useless pinwheels while he struggled and yelped like any wild animal caught in a poacher’s snare.

“ ** _TAILS!_** ” 

Robotnik sent the hovercraft up, ascending heights he knew not even Sonic could reach, superspeed and spines or not.  It was only then that he finally slowed down, coming to a complete halt as he hovered right on the spot.  Tails continued to writhe like a netted fish in the claw that hung below. 

Sonic slashed a twenty foot scorch mark in the field to stop right below him.

“Hello again, Sonic,” Robotnik greeted him almost cordially, though even from his distance there was no mistaking the malice that dripped in his voice.  “What a _wonderful_ surprise to run into at the end of my fox hunt.” 

“Can it, Egghead,” Sonic snapped.  “Drop him.  _Now._ ”

Robotnik didn’t say a word at first.  Tails loosed another cry as the claw tightened around his tiny body.  “I’m afraid I don’t see how that would benefit me,” Robotnik replied.  “It would defeat the purpose of my bothering to come out to this _disgustingly_ green zone, you see.”

 “Don’t worry ‘bout me, So… nic…!”  Tails choked out.  “Kick his…!” 

“ _Let him go!!_ ”

“Tut, tut, tut…”  Grinning wickedly, Robotnik waved an admonishing finger.  As the sun crept out from behind the passing cloud bank, his bald head shone like his dark glasses.  “I didn’t even hear the magic word.  Not that it would be of any use to you in this situation.”

“Forget the games, this is between you and me,” Sonic spat.  “So drop the kid and leave him outta this.  It’s _me_ you want, not him!”

“Oh, but judging by what my roboscouts have seen and your reaction here, this peculiar little fox is _exactly_ who I want,” Robotnik sneered.  The claw tightened with another mechanical click. 

Tails let out a spluttering cough, and then nothing at all. 

“Much better,” Robotnik remarked, before he seemingly noted the transparent horror on Sonic’s face.  “Not to worry, hedgehog, he’s not dead.  Though I’m going to be honest, I can’t promise that won’t change in the near future.  What with where we stand, and all.”

“ _Robotnik!!_ ” 

Sonic felt an almost ancient hatred slither up inside him, a hatred he hadn’t felt since Scrap Brain.  He was close to trembling.  He hadn’t trembled since catching the scientist as he fled in the Final Zone.        

“And now that we have the situation firmly established, are you open to negotiations, perchance?” Robotnik asked almost sweetly.  “I _do_ seem to be in the proper position to ask.”

“You’re gonna be in the proper position for me to _deck you senseless_ when I get my hands on you!”

“Ah, ah, Sonic.  You may want to rethink hollow threats.  Do remember that my hand is likely to _slip_ at any time.”

The hedgehog grit his teeth.  There was no quelling the furious bristle of his quills, but with a clench of his fists he was able to rein in the worst of it before his mouth could take off without his brain.  Whatever Sonic had to say, Robotnik would have no qualms with making Tails pay for it.

“Much better, thank you,” Robotnik mocked, grinning so wide it left his bushy orange mustache twitching like a caterpillar over his teeth.  “You see how fewer people end up with broken bones when you take the diplomatic approach, hedgehog?”

“Diplomatic.  Right.”

“I think I’m being far more so than you, given the complete _mess_ you made of my Final Base.”  Robotnik spoke of the matter calmly enough, but Sonic could very well hear the note of calculating fury that throbbed underneath.  “Not to mention the mess you made of _all my plans._ So!  Let’s get down to business and see if we can’t make some water under the bridge of it, shall we, Sonic?”

Sonic waited, fuming.  Let the egg belly bask in the moment.

 “You likely know what I want by now,” Robotnik broke in again, that grin contorting with such menace that Sonic was half afraid he’d crush Tails anyway out of his hatred alone.  “The emeralds that you so handily _stole_ from me.”

“ _Stole?_ ”  Sonic couldn’t help a coarse bark of laughter in his disbelief.  “Did you say stole?  Because that’s pretty rich comin’ from you, doc.”

“Stole,” Robotnik said firmly.  His brows furrowed.  “I admit, I didn’t foresee something as quick and pesky as _you_ swiping those emeralds before my excavation teams could get them, but –”

“What, you think you’re gettin’ an apology?”

“No.  I think I’m getting those emeralds _back_ where they belong.”  Robotnik hunkered over his controls, making a decisively visible action of his hand going still over the panel before Sonic could argue. 

“You’re outta luck then, Robotnik,” Sonic replied curtly.  “The emeralds scattered.  I don’t even have ‘em anymore.”

A beat of silence followed. 

“What,” Robotnik intoned dangerously, “do you mean _scattered?_ ”

“I meant just what I said, Egg Belly.  They scattered, right after the base went up in flames,” Sonic said.

He remembered the incident well enough, even in the pitch blackness of that terrible night.  As the Final Base toppled over its own foundations, as the explosions shook the grounds and Robotnik plummeted into the dark like a flaming meteor, Sonic remembered the glints of colored light darting around him.  He had been crouched down on his knee, holding the last vestiges of his strength.  Then he’d spotted their reflections, winking like little eyes in the polished steel of that platform. 

Leaning on the edge of the precipice, Sonic could remember looking up at what he’d thought was another one of Robotnik’s machines for how those colored lights whirled so crazily in semi orbit.  He remembered they all drew in on one another, as if aiming to snap shut like an enormous trap…

…then they were gone. 

All six Chaos Emeralds, gone in streaks of chalky color against the night.

Robotnik stared almost blankly down at him.  “You lost them.”  The accusation was drawn like a sword in those words. 

“I didn’t lose ‘em,” Sonic snapped.  “They did some crazy glowy thing and hit the bricks!  I didn’t do anything!” 

“ _Fine._ ”  Robotnik held up three definitive fingers.  “Then here’s the new deal: I will give you _three days_ to bring me those emeralds, in exchange for the life of your little buddy, here.  That is, if he means anything to you.”

“ _Tch._ ”  Sonic found his foot tapping madly.  “And I’m supposed to believe that you’ll keep him in one piece this entire time?  Don’t even try that with _me,_ Robuttnik.  I know your game a little too well.”

Robotnik shrugged.  “Whether or not you trust me is a bit incidental, here,” he oh so gladly pointed out.  “The fact remains that you failed to protect this fox, and now he’s with me.” 

Sonic practically bared his teeth, and the creep couldn’t have looked happier to relish in all that growing rage.

“The choice is up to you, Sonic,” Robotnik said.  “I won’t stick around for too much longer, so it would really serve _his_ best interest that you shut your mouth and listen carefully.”

“I’m all ears, Egg Belly,” Sonic reluctantly ground out.  Like it or not, Robotnik had laid out the matter with almost all the corners cut, save the one that he’d backed Sonic into.  There was ultimately no choice, not really.

“Though you’ve managed to make a complete mess of my base near Scrap Brain, I do have other settlements gaining traction around South Island,” Robotnik began, his smile as cold as his machinery.  “No doubt you are happy for me.”

“Get on with it.”

“One base in particular lies well-guarded over the Glimmer mountain range to the north,” Robotnik continued.  “I’m sure you won’t miss it.  The Scrambled Egg Zone.”

If not for the direness of the situation, Sonic would have drawn dangerously close to laughing.  As it stood, he crossed his arms and met the scientist with a glacial smile of his own.  “Huh, _scrambled_ is right.  Pretty fitting name for one of _your_ places, doc.”

“You will bring all the emeralds there for me to collect,” Robotnik said, content enough to ignore the jab while he was holding an ace.  “Three days, or this poor little creature will… well, it’s probably best I don’t get into the details.  But rest assured, he won’t see a single stroke of daylight again, where I plan on throwing him.”

Sonic’s composure vanished.  “You wouldn’t _dare._ ”

The scientist tented his slender fingers.  Etched from the shadows of the freed morning light, his smile was downright chilling.  “It’s as you’ve said, Sonic, you know my game a little too well.”

He did. 

Caught by the scruff of his neck at the impasse, no words came.

Robotnik pulled down a lever, shifting the hovercraft to another gear.  “Three days, Sonic,” he repeated.  “I suggest you start moving.  And try not to let them _scatter_ this time.”

The hovercraft bolted.

“TAILS!!” 

Sonic took off, raw hope driving him.  He ran, keeping his eyes trained on any and everything he could find as the clouds rolled in between them; any hints of silver, black, or yellow.  Once in a while, he’d thought he could see a flash of Tails’ fur.  He ran even as Robotnik’s hovercraft shrank away into a pinprick that was swallowed by clouds and sky alike.  He ran even after he’d lost sight of them completely.  He ran because anger boiled in his stomach in a way it never had before, he ran because he couldn’t stop, he ran because he should have made _certain_ Robotnik had gone up with his precious Final Base.  He ran because he had _failed_ to protect the kid and now the kid was gone.  He ran because it was what he did best, but Robotnik was a far better coward with running than he was.

And eventually, he slowed.

He stopped.

Sonic fell to one knee again, the same as he had on that dangerous metal cliff standing thousands of feet over the zone.  He was exhausted now as he had been that night.

The clock ticked, and he reckoned that three days had begun.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> OH LOOK
> 
> PLOT


	7. Underground Zone

The good news was that the Tornado had been holding up well enough since Sonic had landed it.  Nestled in the white sand along the coastline, in relative safety between a pair of palm trees, the little red biplane had sat for the most part untouched.  It had found company in a few bypassing gawkers, maybe a few people snapping quick photographs of it, but no one had dared to do much else.  Hopping first onto its wing before he swung his way into the cockpit, the hedgehog thanked the universe for the courtesy of small favors. 

Flying back to South Island wasn’t an issue.  He knew where it was even without engaging the plane’s GPS.  It was the turbulence of flying back into his own memories that rattled him more than a little slew of rough air currents. 

He almost strangled the yoke as he guided the plane back over the windy shores of South Island.

It was a new adventure, however far it laid back across the sea.  Adventure was what Sonic loved the most about his travels, the pulse and speed of the game were everything he lived for, but not like _this._

_Three days._ Sonic kept the course straight, jaw grinding while Tails cried out again in the back of his head.  _He actually did it.  He went so low as to drag a little_ kid _into this.  It was between me and him, and that slimy lowlife egg-bellied…!_

The thought rolled from his grip like loose gravel.  Name calling wasn’t going to help him here, either.

Sonic would have to search for the emeralds all over again, hoping the western side of the island hosted as many of the rings he would need to reach the special zones guarding them.  Assuming that was where the emeralds had gone, anyway.

_Not like_ I _can explain how those things work._ For Tails’ sake, he supposed he’d better start hoping.

The Tornado nosed its way down in the home stretch, wheels gliding well over a gritty spread of clay colored sand.  One of the many plains that footed a range of jagged brown peaks, unclimbable and twisting like crooked spires against the deep blue sky.  If Sonic was stuck searching for the rings and emeralds on foot, then this was where he would depart the Tornado for a final time, until he brought back Tails. 

Fine by him.  Odds were he could move faster than the plane could fly him, anyway.

Sliding over the side of the Tornado, Sonic could already see a few remaining traces of what was once a decade-long mining endeavor in and out of the Auburn Mountains.  Those mountains were likely long hollowed by now, picked to scrap-thin walls after the ore veins had been bled dry.  It was too dangerous these days, with spitting geysers of lava crumpling the tan brick ledges, sinking half the stable ground and unearthing spikes, at that.  Frankly speaking, the place was good as a death trap to run on a crazy dare, but not much else.  Better jobs had been found, better work to be done. 

As he approached, still, Sonic could see a few of the rusty railways descending down into the fitting namesake of the zone itself: the underground.

“First stop, Underground,” Sonic mumbled aloud, gearing himself up for what was going to be a very interesting afternoon.  “Hang on, Tails.  I’m comin’ for ya.”

Drawing a deep breath, he began this adventure the same way he pledged to start any other.

Sonic took off running, daylight fading dangerously behind him.

 

As he leaped the first gap between a pair of brick ledges, running the crooked rail that plunged into the gut of the mountain, Sonic learned pretty quickly that the hazards weren’t strictly beneath his feet.  He followed the rail as faithfully as he could, senses riding high alert when his ears perked at the sound of crumpling earth a few yards over his head.  Without a second thought, Sonic tucked his head towards his feet and rolled.

The points of falling rock that struck his quills were hardly a threat on the hedgehog’s life, but he could feel that there were going to be bruises.  They clocked him like tiny fists.

“As good a start as any,” Sonic muttered, unrolling and coming back up on his feet to keep right on running, unfettered.  He made a note to watch out for more of those things in the near future.  Blazing through a row of power rings, he felt the dull ache of them fade piece by piece.

It would have been next to impossible to see in the mountain, if not mostly for the stoked coal glow of the lava pools.  Fortunately daylight also found its own ways to shine through; it came down in narrow channels through the brick works that had long ago fallen away.  A good thing to have on his side, Sonic figured as he sprinted along at what he would call a healthy pace.  He loved adventure, but the idea of tackling the Underground Zone at night wasn’t his idea of fun.

Drawing upon the massive lava lake, on the other hand… well. 

That was just a slow Tuesday now, in Sonic’s books.

In spite of the sweat that glimmered in long beads over his fur, the heat that threatened his very breath, Sonic met the near hypnotic churn of it with a big grin.  Lifting his hand to shield his eyes, he could just make out little plateaus of land sporting red metal jump springs. 

“Piece of cake!”

Sonic took a flying leap.  Fanning out his arms, he could feel the swelter rising off the lava below, feel his stomach start to twist as he fell on nothing but open air. 

_BOING!_

His feet came down square on the spring, hanging just so over the edge of the plateau that had kept while the lava sculpted it away.  Twirling into a flip, Sonic rose through an entire spinning line of power rings and felt the heat of the underground wink away. 

Landing with an oomph safely on the other side, he took off again in search for a giant ring.  There had to be one _somewhere_ in this zone, and he felt confident enough in his ring count by now to go hunting.  If he could find just one, get his hands on just one emerald, it would speak worlds of his chances to collect the others.

And it would help Tails’ odds, wherever he was.                  

_Three days._

_“HELP ME, SONIC!”_

The very thought of the kid alone was enough to have Sonic pouring on speed, as he followed the rusty vein of another railway and poured deeper into the heart of the Auburn Mountains.  All he could do was hope.  Hope to the highest star, if it dared to listen, that this zone had a giant ring and hadn’t just posed a huge waste of precious time.

“One step closer, kid,” he promised quietly.

 

Sonic actually found solace in the presence of badniks taking what was left of the place. 

Eventually he wound his way back up to the surface, much to his relief.  Then he’d found the old mine cart, sitting oh so suitably near the top of another steep descent down into yet another tunnel.  The railway could have broken off to an abyss that ran miles deep, for all he knew.  It could have ended at the foot of a cave-in, testing his reflexes against spattering his brains all over the rocks.  It could have run down inescapably to another pit of lava, carving a hungry maw out of the depths of the earth.

So naturally he’d hopped aboard and rocketed down the incline.  He went whooping as he ducked an onslaught of falling rocks.

Hey, live a little, right? 

Looking straight ahead, Sonic saw the drop off and the orange glow of the lava below dashing rapidly up to greet him.

He smirked.  And waited.

The second he felt the cart tip its nose into nothing, he braced a foot against the back edge.  When he felt the cart’s balance tip just enough that the front wouldn’t bash in his ankles, he leaped like a jungle cat straight up against a waiting rock wall.  Flinging his hands out, he scrabbled quickly to take hold of something, _anything._

His fingers clasped weakly onto the edge of what felt like a plateau above him, but –

_Crud, is this gonna be enough?_

Sonic felt himself tip precariously backward for a blink, then threw himself forward with a grunt and dug in his left foot.  His sneaker caught traction, and he hauled himself atop the brick layout of the plateau.  He clambered up, rushing off under open skies again, no worse for wear. 

That was when he caught actual sight of a badnik, scuttling about a glittering row of power rings.  A small robotic crab, claws swinging, once in a while snapping said claws open to release bobbing fireballs. 

Sonic felt his spirits lift right off.  If Robotnik’s junk heaps were here, it meant they were in search of the emeralds.  Robotnik didn’t make it a habit to recklessly place his troops in zones that would turn up nothing; it would have spread his resources too far, too thin.  He had to have traced the wavelength of an emerald here, or at least the trace of a giant power ring.  Following their trail closely had been how Sonic himself had found the emeralds the first time, charging the eastern half of South Island.

“Thanks for the tip-off, big guy,” Sonic greeted the crab happily.  He then sprang to smash it into smoking pieces with a single kick.  “But that’s about all you’re good for.”

Buckling into a pile of scraps, the crab bot only beeped sadly in reply.

Moving on, Sonic opted to keep to the higher path over the mines.  Fun as jumping lava was, time was of a now burning essence that was no longer on his side. 

Not that he was disappointed by any lack of adventure; another mine cart sat, almost flagrantly abandoned on the beginning of a new set of tracks that seemed to plunge straight down.  Down to where, well, that was the question!  One that Sonic aimed to answer the same way he tended to answer all sorts of questions – usually questions pertaining to fire, acid pits, deadly robots and springs. 

“All right, I get the front row again,” Sonic said, flipping his way right in.  “Once around the park, Jeeves, an’ back again!”

The mine cart shot off with a rusty squeal, wheels grinding like ancient rock in protest.  Sonic threw himself back, hands behind his head as the cart rocked off its initial mark and hobbled towards the incline.  As the nose dipped, he tossed his hands up the same way he would for any roller coaster.

“Whoohoo!!” 

Most roller coasters didn’t send their cars careening off into nowhere, mind, but Sonic was willing to strike that as a positive for a cart ride that was this painfully _slow._

“Yeah…!  Annnnd this is my stop!  Gotta run, hon!”

Sonic leaped his way free of the cart just as momentum propelled it like a thrown toy off the end of the tracks.  The cart struck the wall of another brick plateau with a deafening crash.  It then fell, spinning, into the tapered orange light of the lava lake raging below.

“Well,” Sonic began lightly, dusting himself off.  “That’s one way of spendin’ an afternoon.  Now if I could just find it…” 

He couldn’t help frowning as he strode off.  It was a good enough sign to find Robotnik’s troops scrambling around this dump, but he hadn’t seen a single giant power ring.  He’d collected enough of the little rings, he had to have, and for all his recklessness he knew he’d done a fair job at holding onto them.

_So where the heck is it?_

Absently, Sonic tried a rolling jump into the air.  He sailed through nothing, and landed nimbly on his feet no better off.  He couldn’t even _feel_ the power of the giant ring anywhere close by.  No electrical surge in the air, no low hum of cold static that left his quills standing on end, not even so much as a sliver of that spinning gold.  It left him uneasy.

_If this really was just a big waste of time, then the kid might be –_

Sonic shook his head, clearing it of things he refused to imagine.  Tails would be all right.  That in itself was an objective fact, something he’d see through to the end. 

_Because if anything happens to that kid all because of me…_

“It’s not gonna come to that,” Sonic said to himself rather sharply.  “It’s not!” 

He took off again, running up the gentle slope of the plateau.  He ran, but he couldn’t help feeling just a touch helpless that it was all he _could_ do.  No choice but to play the game, so long as Robotnik held that ace up his oily sleeves.  No choice but to roll over, no choice because he’d _failed_ to protect that kid and now the kid was –

“Forget it,” Sonic snarled under his breath.  “Just forget it!”

_Except it’s hard to._

He couldn’t forget, even as he ran.

_I messed up big time, kiddo.  I’m sorry._

If not for nearly pinning his gaze down to his feet, Sonic would have missed it.  As he drew upon a pile of rubble on the edge of the plateau ahead – he’d have to go back the other way and cut through the mines after all – he noticed the faintest wink of blue, beneath a tiny hovel of broken bricks.  It winked at him like an eye, bright in the afternoon sun, and Sonic felt his stomach drop in an instant as if waking from a falling dream. 

Screeching to a stop, he waited with scrunched brows, his mouth pursed with anticipation.  Anticipation for _what,_ he didn’t know.  He only knew, once the eye had caught him, that he had to wait.  Wait and be absolutely sure.  Sonic couldn’t say he enjoyed this strange feeling, captivated by something so alien and yet so familiar, but his heart and gut told him to remain where he was.

The blue wink returned.

“No way…!” 

Sonic stared, entranced, as the blue eye seemed to wake with an alluring sparkle that could only be described as phantom, otherworldly.  He remembered, toppling head over feet through the narrow archways of the special zones, how they had all called to him the same way.  Through the ringing of a song he _felt_ more than he _heard,_ and only he alone could feel it.  It was almost as if they’d magnetized him.

The more he found himself moving towards it, the less he doubted that it was this exact same power that held him now.

“You’re here, aren’t ya?” Sonic murmured, reaching out into the rubble.  He crouched and moved in low on the balls of his feet, shoving aside the two top bricks that held it.  “You’re here.  I didn’t even _need_ that power ring…!” 

And there it was.

Its facets as smooth as ice and twinkling like a star, it seemed to open before him.  Deeper inside the pale blue, Sonic could see deeper hues spinning around inside it like a captured nova.  Sliding his hands beneath it as gingerly as if it were made of glass, he could feel that all too familiar hum through his fingertips.  Cool, pulsing electricity dazzled around him, lifting his quills and tightening his skin to gooseflesh. 

“Found ya,” Sonic exclaimed happily, cradling the first of the Chaos Emeralds.  “But what’re you doin’ out here by your lonesome?  Aren’t you guys usually hangin’ out in those freaky weird zones?”

The Chaos Emerald, of course, didn’t answer.  It only spun its colors in hypnotic spirals and sang its song.

“Hey, I’m not gonna question it,” Sonic said with a shrug.  He pulled a satchel from his quills, opening it up and gently laying the emerald inside.  “I’ll roll with it if you guys are cool with it.  Maybe you can help me figure a way outta this mess.”

No answer, only the fading of its song.

Sonic wasted no time moving again, his spirits higher than they’d been all afternoon. 

-

Tails woke in wave of cold, sullen gray. 

In the haphazard rocking of the world, he managed to pluck out some sense and place it, here and there.  It was a drab and dim twilight sort of consciousness, one where the central star happened to be pain.  Pain in his tail – the left one.  A grinding ache in his left side, one that ran in hot pulses down his left arm.  He groaned, ducking his head with dire hopes of letting the darkness take him again.  Let it take him again, except –

“So you’re finally awake, are you?”

_Where…?!  Who…?!_

The fox’s head shot up, ears pricked.  The memories that clicked back in place were unkind ones.  He remembered running, trying to hide high up in the trees to wait until that hovercraft had passed.  He remembered the bullets striking too close to home.  He’d panicked.  He’d started running, what else could he have done, Sonic had been running after them…

_Sonic…!_

If Sonic had been running to save him, how had he woken up here…?

Here was quickly defined as a small cage, with thin mesh bars too narrow even for him to slip through.  The rest of the room was a little difficult to see; his light sources came down to an array of glowing monitors, casting the rest of the chamber in shadows that for Tails proved absolutely monstrous.  He shrank back a little, chewing his lip. 

Almost towering over him by one of the monitors, his kidnapper regarded him coldly through a pair of dark glasses.  Tails realized, then and there, that while the scientist’s egg motifs may have been a bit silly?  The cruelty, the utter coldness he felt in the human’s stare more than compensated for any slights to his reputation. 

“Where’s…!  Where’s Sonic?” Tails asked in the biggest sounding voice he could muster.  Given how his left side ached and how his heart hammered, that wasn’t saying much.  “Y-you better be ready for a total butt-kickin’, robo-butt!  ‘Cause Sonic’s gonna…!  He’s gonna…!” 

Exactly what Sonic would do was left a mystery as Tails scrambled to gather his thoughts.  Just as well, since Robotnik was pointedly ignoring him anyway.  He was hunkered over one of his monitors, watching something that held far more of his interest.

“H-hey!  Don’t ignore me,” Tails said.  He pushed against the bars, bending his fingers between them and rattling them as hard as he could.  “I’m…!  I-I’m talking to _you,_ egg head!  Where’s Sonic?!  Where is he?!”

Still nothing.  Robotnik remained glued to his monitors.

“Hey!!  Egg head!!”  Tails rattled the bars again, feeling a bit braver this go around.  “Where’s Sonic?!  You’re gonna be super sorry!  You’re gonna–”

“I wouldn’t worry for that nasty pincushion friend of yours,” Robotnik finally said without turning around.  The smugness hanging in the doctor’s voice didn’t reassure Tails any.  “He’ll be irrelevant soon enough.  And once I’ve disposed of him, well… the other zones should fall in line fairly quickly, once they realize there’s no hope.”

In spite of his fear, Tails couldn’t help a bright anger that found him shaking the bars again.  “You’re not gonna get rid of _anyone,_ egg-face!!  Sonic will be here, an’ he’s gonna show you what happens when you start makin’ trouble!  Sonic always wins!” 

Robotnik turned his head just enough over his hunkered shoulder to regard him through those black glasses.  They gleamed with wavers of eerie color from his monitors, striking the fox cold before he could protest much further.  “Egg-face,” he echoed dryly.  “You might want to brush up on your own insults a bit, fox boy.  I can honestly say I’ve heard worse from stupider creatures, and that isn’t a good thing.”

“Maybe you shouldn’t’a squeezed all the air outta me, then,” Tails snapped back, just a tad indignantly.  He did want to call Robotnik far nastier names, but he also knew where he was.  Captive in one of Robotnik’s strongholds and likely a stone’s throw away from the nearest roboticizer was never a fine position. 

“It was necessary, I assure you,” Robotnik replied.  “If only to shut you up long enough to get you back here.”

“Where’s here?”

Robotnik chuckled.  “You don’t honestly expect me to be all _that_ vocal, do you?” he asked.  “If you were to escape somehow, I can’t have you knowing where you are.  It’s all part of the tactical advantage, you see.  Something you would learn when you were older, if you had that much time left.”

Tails glowered at him.  “Y-you…!  Y-y-you don’t s-scare me,” he spat, puffing out his chest, hoping against the odds that he looked convincing.  “I…  I-I got plenty of time left!  You’re one to talk about havin’ time left!  When Sonic shows up, he’s gonna kick your butt so hard–”

“Sonic,” Robotnik cut in, “is running out of time just the same as _you_ are, my two tailed little friend.  In fact, when I get through with Sonic, he’ll be _begging_ me to put an end to his misery.”

“Seein’ _your_ ugly face prob’ly _would_ make him pretty miserable,” Tails muttered. 

When Robotnik’s mouth quirked into a perfect, cold smile, that’s when Tails knew he’d done it.  He had overstepped a line, crossed a boundary.

And he was going to pay for it.

“Now there’s a bit of spirit.  I like that,” Robotnik drawled coolly.  He approached the cage in slow, almost silent steps.  “What do you say we work to curb that spirit, some?  That’s my _favorite_ part about taking prisoners, after all.  I think a day or so without food will do the trick.  What do _you_ think?”

Tails pinned his back to the iron bars, still, quiet, but conflicted.  If Robotnik wasn’t ready to deal with the railings of an angry prisoner, then frankly, he shouldn’t have done the kidnapping in the first place.  His heart, which had now leapt up his throat like a cat up a tree, screamed for him to keep his mouth shut.

The scientist smirked his satisfaction, his mustache twitching.  “You’re a little bit smarter than I gave you credit for, I’ll grant you that.  But if there’s one thing your spiny friend forgot to cover in all your ‘training’, fox boy, it’s that you’re not playing in the little leagues anymore.  That marks your most important lesson.  A shame it’ll likely be your last.”

With that, Robotnik turned away and strode for a large pair of iron double doors, inscribed with his insignia.  As they swished open, he regarded Tails a final time with a positively leering grin. 

“Hold on, w-where’re you going?!” Tails cried, blind panic taking him for a second. 

Was this it?  Was Robotnik off to turn on some roboticizer machine?  Were these his last few minutes of freedom?

“The Underground Zone, of course.  As _fascinating_ as this conversation has been?  I _do_ have more important things to do than watching you try to put on your brave face.  Sonic might be in need of a little… _help._ ”

“What do you mean?!”

“That would be telling, now, wouldn’t it?”  Robotnik’s grin only widened with sadistic glee.  In a cowl of shadows woven by the glowing monitors, he looked every part the monster that would have lived in Tails’ bad dreams.  “ _Do_ try to hold out in the meantime.”

“Wait!!” 

The slam of the doors abruptly marked the end of the conversation. 

-

Sonic was taking a very, very huge risk here. 

From the top of the hill and near the initial mark of the railroad, he could peer down and see exactly where it ended.  The ascent had long since given to time, erosion, and eventually what Sonic guessed to be an earthquake.  The rail ran neatly down through a tunnel, but even through that darkness he could see the rail simply _ended_ as it went on into nothing _._ There was the wall of a plateau quite a ways ahead, but it wasn’t without leaping a waiting chasm.

An ominous orange glow didn’t leave what lied below _that_ big of a mystery.

“Eh.  Really _is_ a slow Tuesday, isn’t it?”

Sonic tucked and rolled his way down the incline.  With as far a leap as he could get, he was able to just land on a waiting spring below him, launching him up the plateau to land safely atop it. 

“Yeah!  Solid ten!  Eleven for the landing!”

He sprinted the stretch of railroad ahead of him, grinning when he traced its path down yet another hill.  Steeper this time, and it even veered off and up at the pointed slant of a broken leg, the slant of a nature-carven ramp to launch him up to the plateau on the other side. 

The slant of another very huge risk.

Sonic blazed down it, figuring this would score him about a twenty.

“All right, time to really juice here…!  Gotta get it just right!”  The hedgehog tucked and rolled at the last second, dashing his way up the sharp ascension of the railway for that extra boost.  He felt himself sail into the freefall of nothingness…

_Goin’ up…!_ Sonic thought happily as the wind spun around him.  _Goin’ up and over…!_

…only to start veering back down.

“Whoa, hold on…!”  Sonic uncurled just before he could strike too hard an impact against the other plateau’s wall.  His feet scrambled in vain for purchase.  His hands flew up, only to find nothing to grab onto.  No footholds, no ledges.

Nothing.

_Well crap…!_

Sonic plummeted back like a rock, head spinning while a sizable lake of lava rushed a bit too quickly for the hedgehog’s liking to greet him proper.  As he fell, whirling around to seek _anything_ – a spring, a ledge he’d missed, an opening, a little concrete island – he became very astutely aware that he’d taken a very huge risk.  He had taken a very huge risk and made an equally huge mistake. 

_Okay, not good, not good, not good…!!_

Unconsciously, the hedgehog tucked and rolled himself back into a ball, prepared for the worst.  Blistering heat.  Sizzling skin.  His own blood boiling inside him.  Everything he’d fled in the Marble Zone, squirming his way through that narrow tunnel, it came gusting up to meet him like old ghosts.  This may have been it, unless the Chaos Emerald could somehow –

“OW!  HEY!”

A stabbing pain shot through Sonic’s sides, alongside a jolting stop so terrible that his teeth snapped around his own tongue.  He actually _felt_ his brain rattle inside his head, and for a few seconds he could only blearily make out the caulk and cracks in the bricks that descended…

…wait, _descended?_  

When his vision cleared, Sonic saw the tempered lengths of pure steel extending out of his ribs.  At first he thought he’d been impaled somehow, but realized a second later that he’d have been dead already if that had been their purpose.  No, they were holding him in place.  A pair of giant metal pincers, come down to pluck him from the sky, and directly above them…

“You know, one could say that with enemies like me, you’re hardly in any need of friends.”

“What the…?!”  Sonic whipped his head up, trying and failing to get a good view around the hovercraft between them.  He knew who it was even without a good look.  “’Buttnik!  Should’a figured.” 

Robotnik snorted.  “That’s an awful fine tone to take with the man who just saved your life, you miserable rodent.” 

But Sonic was barely listening.  He grunted, spluttered, trying his hardest to wriggle free.  No dice.  The pincers held fast enough.  “Tch!  I could’a figured somethin’ out,” he growled.  “I didn’t need _your_ help, of all people!” 

“Oh?” Robotnik asked almost guilelessly.  “You didn’t, did you?  Your situation read very differently from my perspective, but perhaps that was just me.”

“Yeah, maybe it was,” Sonic snapped.  He gave one last evangelical struggle to twist free, only to fall short with a haggard wheeze for air.  “And maybe you ought’a loosen these just a tad, doc…!” 

“No.”  The pincers whirred as they tightened almost spitefully, bearing down on his ribs like spurs until Sonic knew for sure there would be some nasty bruises to contend with later.  “For all my generosity, hedgehog, I don’t feel like swooping down into a second dramatic rescue, today.”

“You didn’t rescue squat!”

“Whatever you feel like admitting to yourself.  I’m not having this argument with you.”

“So then what _are_ you here for?”  Sonic couldn’t help an acrid chuckle.  “Y’know, Final Base kinda gave me the impression that you don’t want me around, Robuttnik.  You’d think you’d have come just to put a fork in me and call me done.”

“If I’m to assume that your little hunt for the emeralds is going relatively well, you’re of more use to me alive than dead, for now,” Robotnik replied.  “I haven’t forgotten our little deal.  And I hope _you_ haven’t, either.”

They flew over the plateau, one of the final structures that marked the other side of the Auburn Mountains and the oncoming end of the zone’s boundaries.  Staring at the drifting ground below with large eyes, Sonic could see one last railway angled severely down into a cupped valley. 

Nestled in this small valley was something Sonic couldn’t rightly describe at first.  It looked like a crab, almost.  It was about the size of a small truck, a pair of beady metal eyes peering out from between a pair of mandibles about as nicely pointed as the pincers that bound Sonic now.  The setting was almost grim in a way, the sort of mythic and ancient punishment that befell prisoners, thrown down the slope only to be savagely torn to pieces.

Robotnik flew in close to it.

“What’re you doin’?” Sonic asked.  A part of him already knew, already figured.  The scientist was many things, but a humanitarian wasn’t one of them.  “You’re gettin’ in pretty close to that badnik there, ‘Buttnik.”

“Let’s answer your question with another question,” Robotnik replied as the hovercraft descended.  “How big a fool do you take me for, Sonic?”

“Weeeell, I don't wanna hurt your feelings, here…”

“Now is _not_ a time to get cute with me,” Robotnik snarled.  “Since I have your little friend put away proper, I believe it’s time we had a chat.”

As if waking hungrily from sleep, the crab monstrosity in the valley stirred.  With a tinny cry of parts grinding, the mandibles began to scissor.  Slow, at first.  Faster and faster, as Robotnik hovered a few mere yards over the slope with Sonic in his grasp.

Suddenly, the pincers that furrowed into Sonic’s sides retreated.  Their grip relinquished, and the hedgehog was allowed to land nimbly on his feet.  Properly freed, he stood and glared up at the scientist just as he swooped up high enough to remain out of reach. 

“Chat, huh?”  Sonic smiled cynically.  “This doesn’t look like a good place for riveting conversation, doc.”

“Do you _really_ expect me to believe that the emeralds simply _scattered_ the night you shoved your mitts into the mix?” Robotnik asked.  His tone was almost pleasant, cordial.  “That they’re back in the special zones, and yet somehow my army has been unable to find them?”

“Maybe they’re just really bad at scavenger hunts.”

Robotnik practically slammed his fist into his controls, and Sonic had only a second to glimpse the little cannon that popped out of the craft’s nose. 

The first shot went flying. 

It came hurtling at a speed that would have punched a hole in a concrete wall; a metal bearing about the size of a grapefruit.  It struck the ground, chipping the brickwork as it went, and flew up at him so fast that Sonic almost didn’t jump it in time.  As he flipped neatly over the shot, he heard it whistle past his ear. 

“I have been _extremely_ patient with you so far, Sonic,” Robotnik said, and only now did Sonic realize that the doctor had been masking just how furious he really was.  “But like everything else gracious in this world, my patience _has its limits._ ”

“You’re wastin’ both that and your time, then,” Sonic replied snidely.  “What, you think I’ve got the emeralds all locked up somewhere?”

Another shot flew.  The bearing skipped over the slope like a stone through water, slicing through rock and grinding spots to dust in its path.  Sonic crouched low on his feet and leaped again, flipping below the bearing this time before it came down and veered off down the hill behind him.

“As a matter of fact, that would be my _exact_ assumption,” Robotnik said.

“Look, you can believe what’cha want–”

“Why, thank you.  I very much intend to.”

“If I _had_ the emeralds, then we wouldn’t even be–” Sonic ducked down as another bearing zipped his way.  He thanked his lucky stars for the favor of lightning quick reflexes; anything less would have found a hole punched clean through his skull.  “Would ya lay off, already?!” 

From within his hovercraft, Robotnik didn’t seem all that moved.  “You will either tell me what I want to know, or you will die here.  It makes no difference to me.”

Sonic grit his teeth.  “If it’s a fight you want, then wish granted!”  He began to hurry his way up the path, only to be met with a flurry of shots.  Veering up and down and all over in the ricochet made a storm of them, one that Sonic had to dodge very carefully at the risk of his own neck. 

“Despite what you may think, Sonic, I’m no fool,” Robotnik said with a remote calm that Sonic couldn’t help find unnerving.  “You expect me to believe that those emeralds simply _scattered_ on their own.  That you don’t have them, or that at the very least, you haven’t the faintest where they are now?”

“Yeah, I do,” Sonic snapped.  “Because that’s exactly what happened!” 

“Tell me where those emeralds are, hedgehog.”

“I already told ya, Egg Belly!”

It was when he found himself having to shout to be heard that Sonic noticed it at last.  The whir and grind of parts in the valley behind him had grown strikingly louder.  Turning for a beat, Sonic noticed that the crab monstrosity that lied in the heart of the valley was chomping its mandibles faster, much faster than when it had ‘woken’.

The thing was also looking a bit on the battered side, leading Sonic to believe that it had taken the hits that the hedgehog hadn’t.

_But he really doesn’t care, does he?_ Sonic thought, astounded.  _He’s bashin’ up his own robo-thug, but all he cares about is…_

“You would do well to remember that I hold all the power, here,” Robotnik said.  If the quavering look of him bared any indication, Sonic thought, he held more power than restraint at the moment.  He was starting to slip, and fast.  “Or need I remind you that there is an innocent life on the line?  The life of your little two-tailed friend?”

“Yeah, yeah, you don’t have to remind me,” Sonic replied.  “But y’know what, doc?  I get the feeling that you’re gonna hold onto that card as long as you have to.  You touch a hair on that kid, and it’ll be the _end_ for you.  I’ll still come get’cha, and it won’t be pretty when I do.”

“It won’t even have to be a factor, if you simply tell me what I want to know.”

“Which I already have,” Sonic said impatiently. 

“You’re _lying,_ you _have_ to be!”  Robotnik nearly sent his fist through his controls, sending off another cannonade.  “I want those emeralds!  _I want those emeralds!!_ Now stop playing games with me and tell me what I want to know!”

“Yeah,” Sonic said flatly, as best as he could for dodging.  “Like I keep tellin’ ya, you’re gonna be waiting a while.”

“Sonic, if you choose to die here, I’ll end that fox’s insignificant life!  I swear it!”

“How clear do I have to be?  Don’t you _dare_ bring Tails into this!” Sonic shouted back.  As he landed, ears swiveling to the crunch of iron slamming into metal, he glowered up at the scientist with a hatred that burned in his chest.  “You’ve already stooped to a whole new low by draggin’ the kid into this in the first place!” 

“I wonder whose fault _that_ could be.”

Another shot, another flying leap.

“Uh, yours?  Y’know, ‘cause you’re way off your rocker?”

Sonic couldn’t say what happened in the next few seconds, but whatever it was, it snapped the final vestige of the doctor’s control.  Robotnik was furious.  Next to himself with a rage that slavered, beyond furious.  Sonic had always assumed he had a good idea drawn of just how deep that hatred ran, but this was a whole other level that found Robotnik shouting, _screaming,_ slamming his fist once more into the controls.

A final shot catapulted out, and not too far behind it came Robotnik in his hovercraft.  Full on racing down the hill as if it was on fire.  Robotnik barreled towards him in a near suicidal dive, his face scarlet and contorted.  Sharp and clear as his sight was, Sonic could practically make out the sinewy cords that stood out in the doctor’s flabby neck. 

By way of another miracle, Sonic took a spinning frog’s leap as high as he could into the air. 

Robotnik flew right on past, shrieking in his outrage as he realized his error.  There wasn’t time for much else; spinning a flip in midair gave Sonic all the view he needed to watch Robotnik’s hovercraft go into the gnawing mouth of the crab ‘bot with a near horrific _wrunching_ noise.  The crab’s jaws worked madly, desperately, but they only clattered with the deep crunch of bolts popping loose. 

Sonic winced and even shivered as he landed.  The sounds alone struck and clicked at his chest, scraping at his bones like curved teeth.

The crab’s motors, overworked, went up in a bloom of red flame.  The monstrosity itself was lost forever in a wreathe of smoke and flying shrapnel, a sight just familiar enough to Sonic to flood him with smug pride. 

“One badnik less to worry about,” he concluded happily. 

Robotnik didn’t even offer a parting word as the hovercraft bobbed out of the wreckage, its flight only as staggered as a fat bird’s would be with a sprained wing.  Instead, he spared Sonic a single look that spoke volumes of unfettered loathing.  A look that told Sonic, warned him that this was far from over.  A single victory meant nothing.

Sonic glared right back, watching him go. 

“Almost like old times, eh, doc?” he grumbled to no one, as he hopped over the still smoking valley and sped up and onward.  He could see what looked oddly like a gray drab UFO tottering in the sky ahead.  It was almost perfectly round like a ball, juddering in the air like a buoy on waves.  Considering its shape was that of Robotnik’s insignia, complete with a steel orange mustache and leering black lenses for eyes, Sonic knew without any second guesses exactly what it was. 

A capture unit. 

“ _And_ you’re capturing my little buddies for your toy army again, on top of that.  Good to know you’re dyin’ this much to get back on my good side, ‘Buttnik.”

Curling into another flipping leap, his quills taking on the quickness of a buzzsaw, Sonic slammed into it and sent it rocking violently.  It gave with a hiss of its rounded lower doors, and a tiny fleet of feral rabbits, bats, and chipmunks came toppling out on the ground.  A good many of them looked terrified, while others fell back on puzzled, but they were all quick to seize on freedom as it came to let them out into the daylight again.    

“Go on, guys,” Sonic said, pointing to the wild outskirts near the Auburn foothills, due west.  “Go.  Go on back where you belong, and just wait it out.  Robo-butt’s gonna be finished in _these_ parts too, when I get through with him.  So don’t worry, guys.  I got this.”

One of the feral chipmunks gazed up at him with shining eyes, and in a rare moment of understanding, it scurried off to do exactly this. 

“That’s right.  And that ugly ol’ egg is gonna pay _double_ for this mess, now.” 

How exactly this would be, the hedgehog had yet to really figure it out.  In the end, he supposed it didn’t matter, not really.  He hadn’t had anything figured out in Green Hill Zone, either, but thinking on his feet had served him well enough.  If he had time in this world to worry, then he had time enough to run, and that was exactly what he planned on doing to set things right again.  It would have to be what saved Tails, what saved himself, and what saved the rest of South Island. 

So Sonic turned and went running, led on by the wind and by conviction, chasing Robotnik as he would any sunset. 

              


	8. Sky High Zone

Tails was getting hungry, and even through inches of thick fur he could feel the cold settling in.  He knew better than to complain.  Even for his short and few years, the kit had a decent gauge of Robotnik’s mood when he came stomping back into his base at long last.  He had only been gone a couple of hours or so, but whatever had happened, it was enough to leave risks notably steeper at the moment. 

Robotnik returned in cold silence.  Without a word to his prisoner, he crossed the room and sat at yet another one of his monitors, snarling on occasion at whatever it was he was watching.  The chair’s single support spring groaned beneath his weight.  If not for the situation, Tails might have laughed a little.  The chair, sleek and bright silver, swelled out in the shape of a large scoop to better hold its occupant.  Robotnik looked exactly like the egg he truly was, settled on the dip of a giant spoon.

When Robotnik began to drum his fingers dangerously along the arm of his chair, Tails knew instantly to keep his mouth shut.

 _But what’s he so mad about?_ Tails wondered, before hope seized him.  _Does this mean Sonic kicked his butt?_

Probably, because what else _could_ have happened?  It was _Sonic,_ after all, and Sonic had probably shown Eggface what’s what and looked cool while doing it.  Tails smiled at that.  It stunk that he couldn’t be there, but it lent him a sincere ray of light in this dingy place.

“You probably think you’ll be seeing your hedgehog friend sometime soon, don’t you?”

The question was posed with a silken calm, the sort that struck Tails in the heart and left him with his ears flat against his head.  That was because he knew, by unkind experience, that a fist or stones or a foot in his ribcage typically followed a tone like that. 

“He’ll…!” Tails began, before the words caught in his throat.  “I-I will, ‘cause, ‘cause he’ll be here!  Sonic will be…!” 

Robotnik turned very, very slowly in his chair. 

Tails felt his mouth snap shut without even willing it.

“You won’t,” Robotnik said icily.  “Never again.  That’s a promise, fox boy.  He still has a long way to go, and I’ve got so much more planned for him while he hunts down _my_ emeralds.”

“He wouldn’t bring _you_ the emeralds,” Tails fired back, his lip drawing back to bare a few of his tiny teeth.  “Never!  He’d wanna hold onto ‘em an’ keep everyone safe!”

Robotnik smiled, and Tails knew there was no kindness behind it.  He’d seen plenty of cruel smiles in his lifetime.  “Is that so?” he asked.  “Well, what if I told you that he was going to bring _me_ the emeralds in order to rescue _you?_ ”

“I’d say you’re prob’ly jus’ lying!”

“Oh, but I’m not,” Robotnik said brightly.“Not _this_ time, anyway.  It was our little deal, back in the Emerald Hill Zone.  The Chaos Emeralds in exchange for _your_ life!  Now, how does it feel to help my plans fall so smoothly into place?”

“Nuh uh!”  Tails rattled the bars, though he was quick enough to pull back and look warily up at the scientist.  When Robotnik didn’t seem angry, he pressed on, a little bolder.  “Sonic will figure somethin’ out!  He’s not gonna give up the emeralds to a bad guy like _you!_   He’ll figure it all out ‘cause he’s really fast with his head like he is with his feet, an’ he’s gonna come save me an’ you’re gonna get your butt kicked all over again!  How’s _that_ feel?!”   

There were very few known things in the world that could be budged easily.  Among mountains, among oceans, among the stars that hung in the skies, Tails’ faith in his hero found good company.

Robotnik fell from smiling to _laughing._ Quietly, but with every bit of mockery that Tails was far too used to.  “Well, that certainly puts everything in perspective for little old me, doesn’t it?” he sneered.  “I would have thought you’d be happier.  A stupid, weak and utterly worthless creature like you finally proving himself useful, and all that.”

Tails shook the bars again, jerking them every which way with all his might.  “ _Shut up!_ I’m not dumb an’ I’m not weak!”

No, he had certainly come to believe that he wasn’t.  Not anymore, when he was being honest with himself.

Finding a friend in Sonic had shown him that.

“Your circumstances beg to differ,” Robotnik replied almost contentedly, turning back to his monitor.  “You’ll come to learn soon enough just how vulnerable you really are, kid.  For now, I think I’ll see just how honest your buddy was being in the Underground Zone and let things play out from there.”

Fuming, Tails slouched back in the cage with his arms sourly folded.  Tightening up his hands was literally the only way he had to hide the fact that they were shaking a little.  Here he was, mouthing off to the madman himself.  At least he hadn’t been roboticized yet, but he wondered how much longer his luck was going to hold out before Robotnik decided on a use for him.  

_Sonic’s on his way.  He’s gonna kick his butt._

However frightened he was, Tails didn’t _need_ to hope it was the truth.

 

 

It was no big secret that Sonic was keen on high places.  Pushing off the Auburn Range, where the rocky paths swathed up into white mist and the air grew a tad thin, he found the chilly boundary of Sky High Zone with surprisingly good spirits.  Better this than the murky dimness of the Underground Zone, however rollicking the fun of a runaway mine cart was for an afternoon.

The zone had typically found use as a tourist attraction, really, not to mention a perfect romantic venue for the occasional marriage proposal.  It was a large range of grassy tablelands pushing northwest, woven together with wooden log bridges.  Or, if one was feeling particularly bold, the gaping chasms could be crossed by way of service hang gliders that kept the region’s economy greased.  Crossing Sky High by glider had once been on everyone’s bucket list. 

After Robotnik’s forces had skittered out of the woodwork of South Island, it had started to see notably less business.  The bridges were looking a bit on the rickety side, the logs rotting and splintered.

Sonic hurried along his way full tilt, smirking.

It had been a while since he’d had a good run through this place.  It was a shame he wouldn’t be able to visit the little resort village that lied only a lift ride away, down below.  The last time he’d passed through, he’d eaten a pretty good plate of chili dogs.

“Gotta do what you gotta do,” Sonic said to himself, screeching to a halt at a bridge post and digging into the little satchel. 

The emerald had grown warm, he could feel it even through the burlap.  He plucked it out and held it tentatively in his hand, staring with a fixed wonder into the emerald’s facets.  The jewel had started to pulse, a steady rhythm from the deep blue flames spiraling up to meet his fingers like a second heartbeat.  Swelling, ebbing, flowing, the blue fire seemed to fan itself in every corner it could, unfurling like a smoky blossom. 

It wasn’t the first time Sonic had felt an emerald react like this, not by a long shot.  “You’re feelin’ one of your buddies here, aren’t ya?” he asked it quietly, his tone almost reverent.  “It’s almost like you’re callin’ out for ‘em.” 

Nothing was said, but the emerald beat stolidly against his fingertips.  Somehow, it was all the answer Sonic needed.  He wouldn’t have said he had any confident bearing on how these emeralds worked, what sort of mystical power they contained, but they seemed to whisper everything he needed to know in pauses like these.  In these moments, he felt so eerily calm.  Assured, more so than he usually was.

“Y’know, it’s a good thing you guys know how to ring each other up,” Sonic said, tossing the emerald up and catching it square in his palm.  “I’d be wasting a whole lotta time, otherwise.  I’m not sure why you guys wouldn’t go back to the special zone, but… man, this stinks.  I’ve got a pal in trouble, see, so I’m not sure how I’m gonna keep you guys out of Robobutt’s mitts this time.”

The emerald didn’t answer.  Its heart thrummed and its flames spun, etching crystalline patterns beneath its surface.  Just as well.  Sonic figured there wasn’t much to be said at this point.

“Heh.  Not much of a talker, huh?”  Sonic gingerly set the emerald back in his satchel, mouth quirked in a crooked smile.  “Yeah, I figured as much.  You guys weren’t really big on talk last time, either.”

Still no answer, only the beat of the emerald through the rough burlap fold.

Sonic tore off across the bridge, not even flinching when he heard the thick, bony snap of the logs collapsing behind him. 

 

 _“WHOOOOHOO!_ ”

The glider caught a wild slash of wind flying up out of the canyon several thousand feet below.  Sonic only laughed as he was flung up into a floating row of golden power rings, his hands clamping around the control bar in a near stranglehold.  The battens fluttered, the nose of the glider tipped up until Sonic had to bear his weight on it to bring it dipping back down.  He wrestled a bit with the current before he found a better semblance of control again.

A bit of turbulence, and sure, there was a rocky spike pit lying in wait if he should slip up... but that was half the fun!

He sailed on into the next row of rings with an almost peaceful expression.  The ocean, he could do without.  Water served only to pull him down and sap the breath from his lungs; not only did he drown in it, the stuff practically served to tie him down while it killed him.  Miles up in the sky, it was different in a way the hedgehog couldn’t quite explain. 

Perhaps he was a bit freer in the sky than he was in the water.  Maybe it was the panoramic view he had now of the zone farther out.  Sonic could see about thirty miles’ worth of Sky High beyond the next plateau, darkened to fiery rust in the setting sun just ahead.

He frowned.  Day one, practically gone already.

_Relax.  A lot can happen in two days!_

Yes, it very well could, but if he had Robotnik’s paranoia to contend with, alongside the zones and badniks, they were two days that could pass extremely quickly.  Two days too long for Tails to still be locked up wherever he was, hoping that his hero could come to the rescue. 

“Man, kid…”  Sonic sighed, angling the glider down when the wind threatened to cart him off too high.  “I’m sorry I got’cha suckered into this.  But I’m gonna get’cha right back out, and I hope you know that.”

A lot of feelings came out fists swinging on _that_ front.  Should he have even gotten involved with the kid?  Probably not, to be honest.  Tails should have just been another on-the-road pal, another face among a sea of them he’d seen in his travels, a decent way to kill an afternoon, even if he might have slowed Sonic down or cramped his style.  The visit to the hospital probably should have been the end of it. 

 _Except he had no one,_ Sonic’s conscience leaped to point out, complete with an accusing jab of its finger.  _It wouldn’t have been right, and you know it._

Yeah, maybe it wouldn’t have been, but Tails sure as heck would have been better off.  However rough the wilderness of Emerald Hill was, Robotnik’s fortress was a whole different jungle.

“Well, not like he’s gonna have to book an extended visit.  I’m gettin’ him outta there.”

And that, as they were so fond of saying, was the end of it. 

Sonic leaned, nudging the glider toward the grassy top of a mesa that wound about twelve miles or so.  He extended his feet, running them in rolling steps to slow his momentum before he could simply tuck his way out of the glider entirely. 

The hedgehog decided against stopping to camp out for the night.  Robotnik had cost him too much time as it was, time that was fleeting, time that was never on his side. 

From within the satchel, the emerald began to burn.

 

The storm began not long after sundown.  Near blinding sheets of rain hammered him, while lightning flared in the black clouds suddenly welling ahead.  The ground was slick, and Sonic beared that in mind as he charged on to keep himself from hydroplaning.  A misstep here would have ended with a spike through his back, from what the glints of lightning showed him down in the bellies of the canyons.  The wind shrieked, leaving the bridge behind him tottering before the logs finally fell into the utter nothingness. 

Sonic settled safely on the other side of the gorge, untangling the satchel from his quills.  He could feel it, and even in the coming night, he could see it.  The emerald was starting to pulse again, thumping against his palm like a heart starting to race.  Even before he tore it free from the satchel, he could see that deep sea-blue flame peeking through.  The heart of the jewel was spinning wildly, searing with electrical ripples that rang smoothly to its edges. 

He knew what it meant.  Any time he had gathered rings on the eastern half of the island, any time he had neared a dimensional tear, in the shape of that giant glowing ring, any time he stumbled upon the special zone…

“You can feel it, huh?” Sonic asked it, smirking through the rain.  “It’s somewhere around these parts.  The next one, one of your pals.”

As he stared into its center, he could have sworn to seeing something else.  First it flickered, then it fluttered, from the twinkle of a star to the waver of a heat mirage as he stared without blinking.  In all the deep blue and in a sloshing wave of black, there was just the barest hint of yellow, like a moon slivered by a cloudbank. 

“The yellow one,” he realized, fetching his breath.  “It’s the yellow one that’s up next.  That’s it, isn’t it?  Thought so.  You’re tryin’ to tell me as best you can, huh?  That’s why you’re makin’ such a racket, now?”

It wasn’t, and Sonic knew that well enough.  The Chaos Emerald was simply being what it was, the same as moss on the north side of a tree, the same as a river so simply running its path.  The emeralds, for some strange reason, were magnetized to one another.  They were each their own needle, pointing the due path to the next, almost as if they knew that the next one might hold some part of them they were missing. 

Sonic wouldn’t pretend to understand it, but he could manage to be grateful.  It could very well mark the difference between Tails living and dying.

“Man, this whole thing just gets weirder and weirder.  All right,” he said to the emerald, tucking it away again.  “Then let’s not keep ‘em waiting.  We’ve still got a few more of ya to go.”

Even if the emerald could, Sonic doubted that it would have argued. 

He spied the glider on the hill ahead and ran, struck by inspiration that hoped he wouldn’t be struck by lightning, next.

           

Mighty the armadillo had once said, beautifully, that it wasn’t speed Sonic did best, as much as it was unadulterated stupidity (Mighty always _had_ been the better spoken of them).  Ray the flying squirrel had found a real knee-slapper in that one, clapping Sonic on the shoulder, crying out, “Hate to say it, pal, but ol’ Mighty here’s got’cha pegged!” 

For how long the three had known each other back in Green Hill Zone, well, Sonic wasn’t going to shortchange them that one.  The hedgehog himself would have said that he preferred ‘fun’, but eh, to each their own if they wanted to take the slow-mo way. 

Hanging from a glider in the middle of the storm?  Sonic was determined not to change his mind on that one.  The blips of lightning made it a little difficult, not that he’d be caught dead admitting it.  No, he was taking the fast lane.  The bridges had mostly given out to the storm, it would have been painfully slow to get through what remained of the zone, far too painfully slow.

And Sonic was a lot of things, but slow? 

He.  Wasn’t.  _Slow._

“It’s a challenge,” he assured himself.  “C’mon, who doesn’t like a challenge?” 

Drawing on the wispy edge of the storm, Sonic found all the challenge he needed.  A flurry of gusts whipped the nose of the glider with the hardness of an uppercut, throwing him so high so suddenly that he could have sworn to nearly snapping his neck.  Sonic saw nothing but the inside of the storm for a few split seconds; the pitch black pillars and tufts of it, the lightning that cracked through it like a bullwhip.  Sonic clutched the bar tightly and tried to ease one way, then the other. 

It was no use.  The storm yanked him higher. 

 _Cloud suck,_ he remembered uneasily.  _I forgot, the cloud suck…!_

Thermals that tended to pop out from beneath towering cumulus, cumulous nimbus, all the boring stuff he’d remembered Ray telling him back when he’d first been learning how to pilot the Tornado.  “Look, Sonic my man, I know this stuff isn’t the most exciting part of flyin’ a plane,” Ray had said with a snap of his fingers and that sympathetic smile of his.  “But it’s kinda important, so, I need ya to wake up a spell and lemme know if there’s anything I missed!”

Apparently, _don’t fly or hang glide in a storm you idiot_ had been a point Sonic _might_ have nodded off on. 

“C’mon, c’mon…!”  Sonic practically slammed his weight in every direction on the control bar.  “Lemme down, ya big…!” 

Nothing.  For all his speed, Sonic was nothing, now.  A leaf in a tornado, lost to any decided course.  Thanks for playing.

 _If I see Robuttnik again actin’ all smug up here, I might have to spindash him upside the head,_ Sonic thought bitterly, struggling still just to maintain control of the glider.  It was the only thought that kept his mind from fleeing to grimmer pictures.  _I’m still climbing,_ he realized with a growing panic.  _I’m still climbin’, it’s not letting up…!_

He was still climbing and he knew it, because he could feel the air falling into a harrowing chill around him.  It tore at him.  It bounced him, juddered him, sent him careening from one direction to another, no way to descend and no way to steer the glider to pass on through.  He kicked his feet and bit down a scream as it grew colder still. 

The cold came on quick.  _R_ _eal_ quick.

Sonic’s ear perked to the rapping of what he thought at first to be open gunfire. 

_Hang on, what?  Great, badniks are up here too, that’s just what I…_

When he dared to lift his face from his shoulder, he could see it for himself in another great flash of lightning: hailstones the size of oranges were striking off the glider. 

Teeth chattering, Sonic ducked his head back against his shoulder, still hanging on for everything he was worth.  The lightning crackled until his damp fur stood on end, and the barrage of thunder shook him until his very bones ached.  Over his numb fingers and legs, by the bright glints of the storm, Sonic could see a glazing of ice caked over his body.

 _Okay,_ Sonic thought, unable to help a dark smile.  _I might be in a bit of trouble, here.  Just a bit…!_

Against his back, Sonic felt the thrumming burn of the emerald.  By this point, it was the only beacon of reason he had left anchoring him.  He didn’t dare lose consciousness; it would be the end of him, he’d be dead and frozen by the time the storm let him go.

Easier said than done, he silently realized, watching his clawed hands become quavering blurs in front of him.  The air was only growing thinner.  Sonic could feel it, he felt precious breath fleeing from him while he struggled and gasped that next mouthful in. 

How high had the storm thrown him?  He couldn’t say.

How long had it been?  Only twenty minutes or so.

It was growing dark, dark, ever darker still.  Sonic’s vision fell into gray tunnels that threatened to knock him off the wheel completely as he strained to lift his head.  _Not like this.  C’mon, not like this, not like this, c’mon, c’mon, a little farther, c’mon, not like this…!_

Another resounding crackle of lightning, a thunder that boomed like boulders crashing against iron drums.  Sonic felt the emerald surge, its pulse racing like the engine of a locomotive.  It was here.  Sonic knew it by the fuzzy way of remembering a long ago dream, but the next emerald was here, somewhere here, somewhere in the heart of the storm somehow…! 

“Where’s it…!”  Sonic slurred out.  He felt his head tip and his vision grayed.  When he could move and see again, he craned his neck to look out, look up.  “Where’s… where’s you at, huh…?” he mumbled, delirious.  “Where’s you at, so’s I can…!” 

The emerald burned, brightened.  Even so far down as he was, Sonic could see the sky colored light rising eerily along the underside of the glider.  Close.  It was close, but he’d have only one chance.  One chance, Sonic repeated the two words like a mantra.  One chance. 

One.

Sonic twisted back around and _saw_ it.  It was a disk of perfect yellow, glowing like a moon, glowing like a cat’s eye, wrapped in a few tendrils of black cloud that couldn’t even begin to hide it.  He smiled like an utter loon. 

“Theeeere you are….!” 

 A surge of will later, and Sonic screamed as he forced his fingers off the control bar.  Every frozen knuckle shrieked its protest.  It was like every joint in every finger had broken at once, cracked like tiny pebbles beneath a sledgehammer.  He stared at his hand, transfixed when he’d finally forced it free.  Numb, otherwise.  Stiff, bitten, gnawed by the storm and spat back out, but he flexed his fingers and felt next to nothing.

“I gooooot it,” Sonic sang, reaching out as the glider clambered another foot or so higher.  The air thinned, the ice thickened.  His arm screamed as he stretched out to reach below him.  “Hurraaaaay, I gooooot it…!” 

As the glider clipped the peak of clouds, he felt scalding heat brand his palm until he let out another hoarse cry. 

The thunder roared.

It was dark, it was numb and cold and nothing but pain, and then Sonic knew nothing at all.

 

 

“You’re an idiot, y’know that?”

“Mmmhmmm.”

Green Hill Zone was considerably warm that morning.  It was usually warm every morning, mind, but today in particular marked the coming of a long summer.  Splayed in a hammock strewn between a pair of palm trees, Sonic was lying back, hands woven through his quills.  Half a mile or so east, he could hear the sigh of the ocean.

“A real special kind'a idiot.”

“Mmmm.”

He laid back, looking up almost somberly at a cloudless blue sky.  The hammock swayed a little.  A rare moment in history: Sonic slowed down.

_Eh, you gotta take some time to look up once in a while.  Helps ya remember what you’re goin’ so fast for!_

“Sonic, c’mon, you rollin’ pin cushion.  Open your eyes.  C’mon, up and at ‘em!” 

“Mmmno, ‘s too early…”

“I’ll give ya early if you don’t lemme know you’re still with me.  C’mon!  I thought you were supposed to be _fast!_ ”

“Mm… the fastest…!”

“Then prove it.”

However reluctantly, Sonic found himself stumbling awake.  Green Hill curled away like fog from the sun.  His head throbbed as if it had been thrown on a pike, that was the first sensation Sonic placed when he forced himself to open his eyes at last.  He was sitting upright in the grass, wrapped in the woolen coils of a few blankets.  All around him, the grass twinkled beneath a light caking of early morning frost.  Directly in front of him, there was the shrunken tongue of a dying campfire.

Perched on the log across from him, smirking as he stoked the fire with a dead branch, was a golden-furred squirrel sporting a bright blue scarf and sneakers.  “Heh!  Heya, bud!  Was wondering if you were gonna wake up.”

“Where…”  Sonic closed his eyes against the clear morning light that threatened to split his head in two.  “How’d… you…?  Ray…?!”  Sonic sat upright, throwing the blankets back behind him.  “Hold on, Ray, is that…?!”  Either he was dreaming, hallucinating, or he’d been dropped on the brink of death’s door, but there was no other explanation for it. 

“Got it in one!”  Ray unearthed a few embers.  “I gotta tell ya, Sonic, if Mighty was here?  You’d never hear the end of it!”

Sonic grunted.  Coherence was graciously starting to flow back to him, the same as feeling finally flowed back to all his now aching muscles.  “What’re you doing here…?” he asked, once he could manage.

“From the looks of it, savin’ your pointy butt,” Ray replied.  “I… guess that makes for a change, huh?”

“But how?” Sonic pressed, blinking away the last of the fuzz in his head.  He was still exhausted beyond belief, his entire body still ached, but at least he could think, now.  “How’d you even know I was up there in that storm?  What’re you even doing here?”

Ray quirked a brow.  “Uh, Sonic?  I kinda make my livin’ out here.”  He rolled a gloved hand over himself indicatively.  “Flyin’ squirrel?  Pray tell, who’s gonna be better at givin’ out lessons on how to use those gliders?”

“Since when?”

“For a while.”  Ray shrugged.  “Food don’t pay for itself, ya know.  And hey, maybe my little ol’ tree hut isn’t much, but I still like keepin’ the lights on for it.  Now granted business has been tankin’ a bit – ‘cause thanks for nothin’, Robotnik – but I’ve still got a job to do around here.  More or less.”  The squirrel’s expression became properly serious.  “I saw some total nutjob goin’ off into that storm and flew along behind ‘em.  Sonic, I’m not one to get all gloom-and-doom here, but you were in for it pretty deep, my friend.  Real deep.”

Sonic sighed.  “So I guess I owe ya one, huh?”

Ray shot him a forced smile.  “More like we’re even.”

The hedgehog said nothing at that.  He remembered it as clear as day, even through the thumping cold and the storm that had made knots of his body.  Near the edge of Green Hill, a persistent buzzbomber that weaved through the air like a missile.  The horror dawning in Ray’s eyes when he realized what he’d been doing.  A cry that had hitched in the squirrel’s chest as he apologized without end, near the brink of tears.  Every inch the motivation Sonic needed to head into the Marble Zone.

“Hey, I told you that day,” Sonic began quietly.  “You don’t owe me anything for that.”

“I’ll tell you it’s the same other way ‘round, then,” Ray said. 

“I appreciate it, bud.”

“Don’t mention it!  But like I said, just be doubly grateful that Mighty ain’t here,” Ray said, grinning.  “’Cause buddy, you’d be hearing it for a week straight!”

_A week…_

“How long was I out?!” Sonic shot up to his feet, ignoring the crackle of pain in his joints.  “Where’s the emerald?!”

“Hey, hey!  Sonic, what’s the deal?” 

“I gotta get juicin’!  I gotta go, I gotta get going, _now!!_ ”  Sonic tore himself free of the blankets, looking around hurriedly.  How long had he been out?  A day?  His two remaining days?  “Where’s the emerald?!  The emerald, I had it, I had it in my hand when I went out, I gotta have it, it’s still gotta be here…!”

“Whoa, Sonic!”  Ray cut through his growing panic.  “Sonic, hold on!  Would you relax a spell, buddy?  You were only out a few hours!”

Sonic felt his heart slow a bit while the words gently gripped him.  “A few… hours…?”

“Few hours,” Ray echoed, nodding.  “And I’ve got your stuff right here.  I put the other one in the bag with the one you had, not that pryin’ it outta your fingers was all that easy.  You were all but frozen solid when I got’cha down, Sonic.  A hedgehogsicle!”

Letting out a couple heaving breaths, Sonic slid back down onto the blankets just as his knees gave.  Only a few hours.  He could make up that lost time in about two minutes of running.  It wasn’t too late.  He could make it, he could.  He'd _have_ to.

Ray watched him closely, his expression guarded.  “Somethin’ tells me that you’re not just wantin’ to hit the road again to beat your latest time through a zone,” he said.  “Especially if you’re collecting those emeralds again.”

“Long story, Ray.”

“Yeah?  I’ve got time.”

“I don’t.  That’s the thing.”

“Well then…”  Ray stood.  He took up a small metal bucket of water, tossing it over his fire.  “You can explain on the way, then.  I think I’ve been around ya long enough to keep up.”

Sonic smirked.  “Oh?  We’ll see about that, fly-boy.”

“Lead the way then, quill head.”

 

 

Short of patience as he was, Sonic was frustrated at first when he couldn’t tear off at full speed.  His legs were still a little stiff, threatening him with pulled muscles if he didn’t temper his pace.  He’d compromised and decided to take it easy just long enough to explain things to Ray, but not without some angry reluctance.  Moving at a measly sixty miles per hour was outright torture. 

Ray was making a good show of keeping up, at least.  A few feet above him to his right, the squirrel was catching a few nice thermals to surge along on, a pair of flying goggles situated firmly on his head. 

Sonic explained the whole story of the past week to him.  He told him about heading off to West Side Island, about the two-tailed fox kid, about the attack on the camp, about Robotnik’s demand for the emeralds and the deadline he was now having to crunch on thanks to his dumb stunt with the glider.  Ray listened intently, nodding along in all the right places.  Sonic knew well enough he had a good confidant in him; Ray had always been a pretty good listener for both him and Mighty whenever either of them found themselves in a fix or in a falling out.  He’d been a less proactive part of their little trio, but nevertheless important for how he listened and chewed on the issues instead of settling them with either his feet or his fists.

“Good to know Robotnik learned his lesson,” Ray said dryly of the matter.  “I knew he was slimy, but dragging a little kid into it…  What a _total_ _creep._ ”

“You got _that_ right.”

“What’re you gonna do when you get to Scrambled Egg, though, Sonic?” Ray asked.  The squirrel glanced at him nervously.  “I mean, I get that it’s to save the kid, but if those emeralds are in Robotnik’s hands?  There might as well not even _be_ a South Island, or even a world as we know it, for that matter.”

“I know that, Ray,” Sonic said wearily.  “I’ve _been_ thinkin’ about that since day one of this crap.”

“So…?”

“I’m not sure what I’m gonna do.  Robotnik made the rules pretty cut and dry.”

“Hm…”  Ray pursed up his mouth, the same way to which he was inclined when properly rolling a problem about in his head.  “Biiiit of a sticky bind there, old buddy, old pal, old friend,” he remarked.  “Sticky as honey on a thorn, indeedy.”

Sonic spun on the ball of his foot, pivoting to run backwards and look incredulously up at him.  “Startin’ to sound like the old folks, Ray,” he warned.  “You’ve been out here alone for a bit too long.”

“Oh shut it, have not!”

“In any case, I think I’m about ready to start speedin’ up.”  Sonic could feel it.  His legs were starting to awaken.  Whatever joints had locked up in the storm, they were springing back as warmth greased them.  “Better hurry if you’re still taggin’ along!”

“That sounds like a challenge.”  Ray reached up, the better to lightly adjust his goggles. 

“What if it is?”

“I’d say you’re on!”

And as they raced along, with Sonic leaping the mesas and running an easy slope downhill, the hedgehog couldn’t help remembering older times.  Easier times.  Simpler times, before Robotnik had stirred up the zones with his forces and brought war to the islands. 

Those had been times when Sonic’s biggest worries had been escaping school unnoticed, beating Mighty at their chili dog eating contests, finding ways to run faster, go faster, move so much faster…

“Sonic…!  The heck is that…?!” 

Narrowing his eyes, it didn’t take long for Sonic to look ahead and see what exactly Ray meant.  Over the edge of the grassy cliff, hidden in the rising white clouds, he could see what looked like a gleaming metal platform.

“I dunno, but we’re about to find out.” 

“Just don’t go getting yourself almost killed again, please.”

Content to ignore that, Sonic leaped off the edge of the plateau, feet thumping as he flipped a few yards onto the platform.  He searched it up and down for any sign of badniks.  This had Robotnik written all over it, or more specifically, trap written all over it.  He was almost half-wary that Robotnik would be charging him again, preceded by the single poisonous yellow eye of his hovercraft’s headlight. 

What he saw surprised him more than a blind charge.  Scampering, almost dancing as they bobbed along with mechanical chitters in the mist, Sonic could see… tiny robots.  They came up at about knee height on him, ovular, flapping stubby little wings like baby birds only now figuring out how to walk.  Robot penguins, maybe?

Ray came to a landing right behind him, scattering the fog.  “So what’s on the ol’ agenda?” he asked.  “Motion activated death lasers?  Spikes to nail our feet down?”

“Weirder than that.”  Sonic pointed at the little retinue of waddling robots.  “I’m almost gonna feel bad about breakin’ these.”

“Baby robots…?” Ray looked just as puzzled as Sonic felt, likely wondering their purpose.  “The heck…?”

“Doesn’t matter.  I say we make scrap metal of ‘em!”

“I hear that.”

Sonic was already rolling into a spiky ball, plowing his way through at least four or five of them in a single pop.  They crumpled like soda cans, their parts flying just as lightly as Sonic rolled his way back up to his feet.  On the other side of the platform, Ray was making quick work of what remained of the baby robots with a few well-placed kicks.  They blew apart on impact, whining as they did.    

Easy as he would have loved this to be, Sonic already knew right then that something wasn’t right.

_Right.  ‘Buttnik makin’ it that easy?  Fat chance of –_

The thought was abruptly choked off by the platform buckling.  One second there, the next second gone in a plume of smoke and imploding shrapnel.  Sonic nearly shouted in both fear and surprise, half expecting a drop into nothing and half expecting a spike pit beneath them before his feet found solid ground again.  Another platform.    

“Sonic!”  Through the smoke and the clouds that crisscrossed below, Ray landed a few feet to Sonic’s left.  “You all right, pal?”

“Yeah, I’m just fine,” Sonic replied.  “That’s not the part we should’a been worried about.”

“Then what _are_ we supposed to… hoo, boy.”

Hoo boy was right, Sonic figured, as the two beheld a towering new figurehead looming ominously out of the fog.  Its long neck was almost serpentine, comprised of segmented steel plates.  But even with the thinnest slats of sun through the clouds, Sonic could still see that rounded head coming to the angry point of a beak.  The beak was snapping open and shut, and he could hear the high hum of drawn voltage mere seconds before he felt it raising his quills.

“I’m gonna guess that’s the mama, then,” Ray muttered.  “Great.  Great!” 

“Welcome to my world, buddy.”  Sonic prepared himself with a stretch.  “I’ve been needin’ to cut a bit loose after that mess with the glider.  Come and get some, birdbrain!” 

“Sonic, hold on!!”

The hedgehog was already rushing off to charge it, up and over while the enormous metal bird bobbed from some seeming abyss shrouded in white.  A mechanical grinding shook the platform, another high keen of electricity, likely power spinning through the coil of a generator.  Whatever the monster bird needed, any offering the monster bird needed, in order to–

“Oh, geeze!  Sonic, watch out!!”

He felt the heat of a passing fireball over his left flank before he unfurled and saw it.  Sonic looked up and saw a literal ball of fire the size of a shotput ball ricochet off the platform and whiz off into the sky – nearly singing an inch of fur off Ray’s tail in the process. 

“Might wanna take your own advice, bud,” Sonic replied. 

He vaulted himself at the bird’s almost wildly ducking head, feet first.  He felt the thing’s metal hide give a little, denting as its head rocked back so violently the neck bolts creaked. 

“Don’t think that’s gonna be enough here,” Ray yelled.  He’d already jumped into the air, catching a light thermal to go airborne as he sailed his way a vague inch or so around another fireball.  “Just hold on!”

“Not so sure I’m the one that needs the back up!”  Sonic jumped again, curling up for another crash against the bird that struck home.  He skidded a few yards on the balls of his feet, regarding the squirrel with a cocky grin.  “I didn’t come that close to losing an inch off _my_ fuzzy butt!”

“Shut it, pincushion!”  Ray twirled in midair, ducking the crackling path of another fireball and dealing a solid kick upside the bird’s head.  The blow sent it hobbling almost dizzily back into the mist.  “I think I’m doin’ pretty well for myself, thank you!”

“Heh, so far!”

“Says the guy whose butt _I_ had to save just this morning.”

Muttering a few choice words under his breath, Sonic took the point as it was and focused on the badnik for the time being.  He swung around on a firmly planted hand, the better to toss himself into a spindash as he rolled across the platform.  Picking up speed as he rolled just barely saved his hide from being knicked by another fireball, and Sonic seized the advantage to jump up and slam up into the bird’s chin.  He felt that metal hide give another inch or so.  That much closer to going out for the count.

That much closer still, when he saw Ray swoop in and deal it another kick across its beak.  Sonic snickered.  If the thing had any teeth, he figured a blow like that would have it spitting them out by this point.

In a fury, the steel bird began to lob out fireballs, coughing them out like gobs of chew for a spittoon.  They wheeled in from all over, rocketing madly as pinballs that seemed to veer in one direction before gearing off to the next.  Sonic found himself having to leap over one, roll under another, only to find himself leaping again just to keep clear.  The thing was pretty angry, or as angry as machines were permitted.

“I’ve got it from up high,” Ray called down to him, sailing in on another thermal.  “Think you can hit from down low, blue boy?”

“Heh, depends how well you can handle it!”

“Just watch!”

The coordinated attack was too much for the bird’s targeting system to handle.  Sonic crashed into its hinged jaw a final time, and felt the bolts tear like molten knots through steel as they cracked loose.  He felt the heat practically gusting off the machine’s surface before it finally began to flame.  The mad monstrous bird began to sink into the clouds, plunging like the figurehead of a ship ending its final voyage while its mouth hung open and limp.  Its cold, glassy eyes lost their final light as it tottered backward, the last of its fireballs fizzling out as they streaked over the morning sky.

Sonic and Ray stood back, admiring their handiwork.

“Well!”  Ray was grinning from ear to ear, hands on his hips.  “I think that’ll take care of that!  Not bad for my first time takin’ on one of these things, huh?”

The hedgehog laughed.  “Nah,” he agreed, holding out a fist.  “Not bad at all, bud.”

Ray eagerly bumped his fist against Sonic’s.  “One badnik down, one emerald down, right?”

“Right,” Sonic said.  “But I’ve still got a ways to go.”

A little ways off along the platform, the capture unit was easily slammed open to free an entire array of feral bluebirds and little chickens.  A floating, bouncy UFO, the same as in the Underground Zone.  Ray watched Sonic free them with a nearly bemused expression, one that wouldn’t betray his memories one way or the other. 

“It’s a good thing,” the squirrel said.  “What you’re doing for them, I mean.”

Sonic gave him a clipped nod.  “Least we can do.  And thanks, by the way.”

“Like I said,” Ray replied, his smile as thin as the edge of the clouds.  “We’re even.” 


	9. Aqua Lake Zone

Robotnik was not having a good time.

Having listened enough to the yowling of that fox brat, he’d settled instead for watching the hedgehog’s progress in another one of his deeper antechambers.  He welcomed the relative peace he found there, alone with a mug of coffee as strong and black as old machine oil.  There wasn’t much to be said, sitting there and watching as his forces retreated from yet another zone.  More ground, gone.  He was supposed to be pulling all the strings here, yet Sonic had somehow cost him both Underground and Sky High in only a day. 

_I hate him._

His grip around the hot mug tightened until his knuckles popped.

 _I_ hate _that hedgehog._

And brother, hate was a bit of an understatement.  It was baffling, watching some mouthy, stupid little kid somehow heap on that much damage, inflict casualties that ran as steep as his own roboticizing factories.  So many troops, so many soldiers, gone in the blink of an eye.

Watching his Egg-Stork literally fall in flames, he marked another investment long gone.  Still, it wasn’t without its advantage; Sonic fleeing the zone could only mean that he’d found what his own numbers had been searching so high and low for. 

The emerald.

 _I don’t know how he’s finding those blasted things before I do,_ he thought with a long draft of his coffee.  _But it’s not entirely hopeless._ After all, he had an ace locked up in the other room.  The hedgehog was a bit more useful to him alive than dead, not that he was going to blame his lieutenants for doing exactly what they were programmed for.  If the hedgehog wound up splattered, he could very well pluck the emeralds from his remains and go about seeking their secrets off of what he had.  Of all the attempted opposition the doctor had met so far, Sonic was by far and large the biggest threat.

A win-win, no matter what way the wind spun.  Sonic would either bring him all the emeralds or die trying.

_Still…_

Robotnik couldn’t help frowning at the seemingly unfinished whole of that plan.  Underestimating Sonic had been his mistake on the eastern half of South Island, and it had proven a near fatal one after he’d blazed through all the traps and snares of Scrap Brain.

_A contingency plan never hurt anyone, did it?_

The scientist smiled wryly.  Little did the hedgehog know that he’d shown _his_ hand, as well.  His speed and abilities in combat were not to be trifled with, but now that he knew fully well what he was dealing with…

“I think it’s time I make some preparations,” Robotnik muttered aloud pleasantly. 

With another swig of his coffee, he stood with the niggling scratch of blueprints already hatching in his mind.  He could see the design plainly, in accentuated lines and white dashes.  The etched in swoop of deadly blades.  A claw capable of snapping a neck like old kindling.  It would _show_ that hedgehog fast and make him wish he’d never heard the word.  As brutal, unfeeling and cold as any length of tempered steel.  About three, maybe four feet high, though the body would have to be neatly compartmentalized.

His smile unfurled into a grin as inspiration, all too fittingly, hatched before him. 

“This might be more fun than I initially thought,” he said, already eager to get started as he rounded his way to the elevator.  He eased in, eager to take it down to the lower floors to get started.  Titanium alloy endoskeletons certainly couldn’t build themselves.

And besides, it wasn’t like he had to _feed_ his prisoner.

 

*** 

 

“So you’re still hangin’ with me, huh?” Sonic asked, trying not to sound as surprised as he truly felt. 

A couple yards overhead, Ray was gliding to keep up as Sonic broke into another long run down Sky High’s foothills.  It was all forest from there; towering pine and maple, skirted in low hedges and wild underbrush, rutted in the occasional rocky bluff.  It was far from the smooth curve of the central road, but it shot them from point A to point B with the precision Sonic far preferred.  They were expecting to hit the next zone before the morning was out. 

“I’m hangin’ as long as I can, sure,” Ray replied evenly.  “Someone’s gotta keep you outta trouble, and I don’t see ol’ Mighty around, do you?”

“Yeah, yeah, you’re a riot.”  Sonic turned to run backwards once more, the better to talk to his impromptu companion more directly.  “Look, you don’t gotta worry about me.  Not anymore.  I’m done with makin’ all these dumb slip-ups.”

Ray snickered.  “Right.  And I’m a red-tailed chipmunk.”

“I’m serious,” Sonic insisted, turning back around to mind the rugged path as it twisted ahead into another aisle of trees.  “I’m done screwin’ up.”

“Something tells me that’s not Sonic turnin’ over a new leaf, exactly.”

“Nah.”  No point pretending otherwise, there.  Sonic had been making a fairly good time of this adventure for the most part, but his own butt on the line would likely never be enough to keep him out of danger for too terribly long.  Half the fun of adventure was the fast thinking it took to dig himself right back out of trouble. 

Except this time around?  There was more than _his_ hide on the line.

_Sonic, if you choose to die here, I’ll end that fox’s insignificant life!  I swear it!_

As fast as even Sonic was going, the words found plenty of their own time and speed to catch up to him.  Robotnik had meant every word.  The fall near the edge of Underground should have been bad enough, to have his butt hauled up by _Robotnik_ of all people, but thinking back to the funneled darkness of that storm and how it would have fared for Tails if he’d frozen to death that very night…

“It’s the kid, isn’t it?” Ray hedged.

“You know me pretty well, Ray,” Sonic replied in a grave voice.  He leaped over a fallen log, bent low across the path.  “Like it or not, Tails is counting on me.  He’s probably scared outta his wits and that’s twice now that I’ve almost had my quills fried.”

“Frozen,” Ray corrected flatly.  “For that time, anyway.  So no more stupid stunts, huh?  That’s kind of a weird stretch from you, good buddy.”

“Yeah, yeah.  So what about you, anyway?” Sonic asked, glimpsing the squirrel absently over his shoulder.  Through a low canopy of branches, Ray was nothing but a golden glimmer.  “Speakin’ of weird stretches, I’ll call this one for you and we’ll both call it even.”

With his expression torn, it was difficult to tell just what Ray was thinking.  He didn’t seem so inclined to reply, at first, but before Sonic could start in again he answered.  “I know that between the three of us, I’ve always been kinda… y’know.  Back.  Hangin’ on the sidelines.”

Sonic nodded.  It was a fair assessment according to him, though there was no telling what Mighty would have thought.  When Robotnik’s forces had starting to rise up on South Island, Sonic had found a fiery kinship with the armadillo in striking out to beat them down.  They’d eventually parted, both of them seeking to combat Robotnik in their own ways, but Ray… well, Ray had opted to be there as support, if nothing else. 

Not that Sonic had particularly cared, though not for entirely selfless reasons.  If Ray wasn’t up for a fight, then it was one less person in the way.  One less person holding up his big adventure, one less person slowing him down. 

“That’s changed?” Sonic asked almost too quietly.

“What else can I say, Sonic,” Ray said with that wan smile again.  “I hung on the sidelines back then.  Guess it was because I thought I could.  I was too chicken back then to stand up to Robotnik, and look where it got me.”

“Tch.  Don’t get all broody on me.”

“I’m not.  But you saw it for yourself, didn’t you?”

Sonic said nothing.  He _had_ seen it.  He had, and he remembered the way Ray screamed as he was slammed back into the front of his own mind.  He remembered Ray’s bruising grip around his wrist. 

He preferred not to.

“So yeah, I’m takin’ a bit more of a proactive approach these days, blue boy,” Ray cut in.  He slalomed his way over a few branches to catch Sonic’s pace.  “Is that okay with you?”

“Yeah.  It’s fine,” Sonic murmured.  “It was just… surprising.”

“Heh.  Guess so.”  Ray paused, then added, “But I’ve still got a question, and it’s the most important one.”

“Lay it on me.”

Ray dipped beneath another branch, casually turning in midair and adjusting his goggles.  “All these dumb stunts you’re pullin’ are just pertaining to you, right?” he asked.  “The Tornado’s still in one piece, right?”

“I’m touched, Ray, really.”

“Hey, it’s a vital question, ol’ buddy!”

“Just shut it and try to keep up.”

The forest shallowed after another couple of miles, the path flattening into long plains of tufted teal grass that seemed to dance on the breeze.  The silty, loamy smell of wet sand hung thick as fresh smoke on the air.  When Sonic saw the reason why, shining like the face of a sapphire beyond the fields, he couldn’t help scowling. 

Grass gave way to a shoreline that jagged across the horizon, stretched in wedges of sand and grooved coral the color of ancient cork.  Standing out of the shores were tiered amethyst fountains, spiraled pillars of blue and purple quartz, holding up pleated awnings where weddings and birthday parties could be held once upon a time.  Beyond that lied the sky blue waters of one of the biggest lakes on South Island, a place once overrun with visitors from all walks of life during the summer.  Whether they were couples looking for a nice venue or kids looking to explore the underwater ruins, it was a place most would agree to pass by once or twice a year if they could help it.

Except for Sonic, respectively.

Aqua Lake Zone simply wasn’t his scene.

“Whoa…!”  Ray flapped out the wings of fur beneath his arms, fluttering to land beside his friend.  He gazed out, shielding his eyes from the still rising sun.  He gave a sharp whistle through his buck teeth.  “Wowie, what a view!”

“That’s one way of putting it,” Sonic grumbled.

“Huh?”  Ray took one look at him and started to laugh.  “Sonic, you call yourself an adventurer and you _still_ haven’t learned how to swim?”

“It ain’t exactly on my to-do list, these days.”

“Well, what’s the verdict?  We gotta cut through here to find your pal, or what?”

“Chill, fuzz butt.  That’s what I’m checkin’ out,” Sonic replied.  He kneeled in the grass and threw open his satchel, digging for either of the emeralds he now held.  _C’mon, none of you guys would wanna hang out around here, would ya?_

He carefully drew out the yellow one, already cringing as the answer thumped against his hand.  A pulse rose from its heart, crying out for its brother.  Weak, but there, undeniably.     

“Great,” Sonic practically spat.  He shoved the emerald back in with no mere pinch of disgust.  “Looks like we’re gonna have to go on through, after all.  Just… great.”

“Aw, it won’t be so bad!”  Ray slapped him across his back, either oblivious or ignoring the agitated look this earned him.  “Not like you gotta go it alone!”

“Boy, ain’t I lucky.”

“Heh…!”  Ray shoved at him, jogging down off the bluff to head for the lake.  “C’mon, slowpoke!  Last one there’s gotta swim across!”

“Don’t even kid about something like that!”

It only took Sonic half a second to catch Ray and pass him, feet blurring as he overtook the plains in a near flash.  He didn’t slow down, even as he hit the coral pathway that sloped ever casually down into the water.  All part of the plan, he hoped, if he had just the right amount of speed. 

Tucking into a spindash found him dangerously close to plunging into the water head first.  He almost gasped in perfect fear.  He almost unrolled by instinct that screamed for him to start kicking, start struggling, and start paddling.  Biting the bullet, he railed against it.  The lake lashed against his backside with an icy slap, then the top of his head, then his backside again as he bounced over the water in skipped arcs like a thrown flat rock.

By the grace of every lucky star, Sonic skipped all the way to a little coral island that sat comfortably on the edge of the lake’s shallows.

“Pretty smooth move, bud,” Ray remarked from above. 

Sonic glowered almost jealously up at the squirrel as he glided in overhead, landing with a ninja’s grace a few feet away from a jump spring.  More importantly, he did this while never once having to touch the water.  “Eh, it was nothin’,” Sonic said lightly, waving it off.  “I didn’t even touch my record.  Let’s speed!”

“All right, but none of those loop-de-loop things for me, thanks.  I’ll take the sky.”

“Yeah, sure,” Sonic said.  “You go ahead and take it easy, grandpa.”

“Speak for yourself!”

The hedgehog took off, up and around the giant coral rock loop, spinning his way through the fallen debris of a few caved in plateaus. 

Ray kept up, not too far behind.

 

***

 

Despite the profound snarl of hunger in his gut, Tails learned that there were advantages to your captor leaving you alone.  Even if you were growing hungry, even if you were getting cold to your core, even if you felt your throat starting to burn with thirst like cracked leather, even if it was dark, and you were alone, and you were scared?  Yes, even this situation had its purpose.

He knew that Sonic was on his way, that fact was as faithful to him as any sunrise or sunset.  Sonic was coming, that was only a matter of time, but that didn’t excuse inaction. 

Tails wasn’t going to just sit back on his hands and whimper. 

 _‘Cause that’s not what_ Sonic _would do._

Then again, he noted glumly, Sonic probably would have busted out and kicked Robotnik’s teeth in by now.  Or more realistically, he never would have been captured at all.  He was too cool, too fast, too clever, all the things he wasn’t…

 _Sittin’ in here and pouting’s not gonna change anything,_ he thought.  That was another fact plain as day that stuck with him.  _So think!  What would_ Sonic _do?_   

Given enough time alone, Tails had memorized just about every detail of this room.  It was mostly nothing but computers, an entire embankment of monitors that seemed to peer at him like large eyes from the darkness.  This wasn’t all there was to the chamber, though. 

A couple feet or so to his right, Tails noticed a small steel plated toolbox.  More than likely, it was a little quick access utility kit for the computers in case something went awry, a quick reach for any crossed wires or any worn down hardware.  Tails figured that much by the simple fact that the buckles weren’t even clasped. 

There was no moving the toolbox, but the cage wasn’t bolted down.  Tails had figured that out when he’d rammed the bars with his shoulder, trying to spite the mad scientist oh so bravely while his back was turned.  The cage had been jostled a couple inches with a metallic scrape that sent a chill down his spine.

And this had swiftly become Tails’ project, as of the past half hour or so.

Robotnik wasn’t in the room at the moment – Tails had reason to believe he might not have even been on this floor, or even in the base anymore – but he had to play this smart.  Smarter than the hospital, smarter than ol’ Snout’s.  If Robotnik returned and figured out what he was up to…

Tails tightly shut his eyes.  He didn’t want to consider it.

When enough silence had passed, Tails lowered his shoulder and rammed the bars again.  The cage gave with another plaintive scrape.  It was good progress, he just had to hope that he wouldn’t tip the cage over entirely at some point; he’d have a heck of a time reaching that toolbox otherwise.

“I’ll show ‘em,” the fox growled, ramming the bars for what felt like the hundredth time.  His shoulder ached.  He could feel a bruise stirring beneath his fur, but he stubbornly kept on.  “I’ll show ‘em.  ‘m not dumb, not weak…!” 

Another hard hitting tackle, another pair of scraped inches, another long pause as he waited for any sign of Robotnik.

Rinse, repeat.

If the fox had known any credible curse words, he probably would have peppered the silence with them for having such tiny arms.  He’d heard the other zone kids talking about their growth spurts over the summer, so where the heck was his, already?

_There…!  That should be just enough…!_

Tails pinned himself against the bars, close enough that they were next to painfully clamped against his face.  He stretched his arm out between them, fumbling with the barest edge of his fingertips until finally, they caught the edge of a clasp.

“Yes…!” 

A few nudges, a few tugs, and Tails had hauled the toolbox towards him.  Through the bars, he beheld it with all the devout awe of a starving man who had dreamed of a scrap of bread.  If he didn’t get out of there soon enough, it wouldn’t be long until he began to dream of food, himself.  Call it a hunch, but he doubted Robotnik was going to be kind about future rations.

With a loose swing of his fingers, Tails threw back the lid to the toolbox.  He cringed when it fell open with a rough clatter.  Another pause.  Another quick look around, while he hated how much the very thought of Robotnik coming back in at this moment _terrified_ him, because _Sonic_ wouldn’t be scared.

_I’m not Sonic, though…!_

Too little, too late, he figured as he blindly began to forage.  If Robotnik came back in, that would be the end of him.  No turning back.

Pliers.  A ring of L-shaped torx keys.  A pair of extension cords and USB cables, all the usual fare he’d come to expect from his dad’s old work spaces.  Nothing beared particular promise as he sifted around a can of compressed air, a flathead screwdriver, a small plastic box of extra bolts, a roll of electrical tape…

“C’mon, c’mon!  There’s gotta be somethin’ here, somethin’ useful…!  Somethin’ here I can use, so I can – ow!!” 

Tails yanked his hand back, his fingers flying instinctively to his mouth.  He wasn’t sure what had _stung_ his hand, but it smarted.  Glaring in at the tools, he found himself throwing quite the nasty look at…

The very fine, needled point of a pentalobe screwdriver.

Very fine indeed, as fine as a hornet’s stinger.

It only took Tails looking between it and the padlock holding his cage shut for an idea to surface.  It wouldn’t be as easy as they made it look in the movies, Tails had taken apart enough locks in his spare time to know, but he felt pretty confident anyway. 

A mere puzzle of pins and spaces, one that he could solve…

…if he had enough time before Robotnik came back.  

 

***

 

“Yeah, except no!  Uh-uh!  That’s not happening!!”

“Sonic, I don’t think it’s reactin’ that way for the heck of it, pal.”

“I don’t care how it’s reacting!”

Ray quirked a brow.  “Are you tellin’ me _you’re_ the one that’s gone chicken, now?”

Sonic glared daggers down at the yellow emerald in his hand.  In its center, a web of orange embers had started to twinkle.  He could feel the hard thump of its pulse.  From inside the satchel, he could see the blue emerald joining in, almost conspiratorially. 

They were standing near a coral ledge, taking their rest at the foot of one of the zone’s many elaborate fountains.  As they ate from their packed rations to the peaceful garble of the water, that was when Ray had remarked on Sonic’s satchel starting to glow.  It meant the close presence of another Chaos Emerald, crying out to be found. 

It also meant Sonic had to go a little farther.

Off the ledge, into the water that ran so deep that neither of the pair could see the respective bottom.  Ray had taken this to mean that the third Chaos Emerald lied buried somewhere in the underwater ruins, while Sonic had taken this to mean that they were going to drown the second they stepped in.

“C’mon, pal,” Ray said, almost pleading.  “Usually it’s _my_ job to say ‘hey, this isn’t a good idea, guys’.  You’re screwin’ with dynamics here, and I’m not so sure I like it.”

Sonic wanted to tell Ray very explicitly where he could shove his _dynamics,_ but he knew the squirrel was right.  If the third emerald was down there, it was down there, nothing could change it.  He settled for drawing a few deep breaths and wondering what he’d done so wrong to deserve _this_ of all things, atop everything else.

 _But even if Tails_ wasn’t _being kept by that creep…_

Robotnik being back to his old tricks meant he would need the power of the emeralds once more.  Even if he didn’t understand said power entirely, he certainly wasn’t going to trust it in someone else’s hands.

“Yeah, you’re right, you’re right,” Sonic said before Ray could argue further.  “All right?   This is me saying you’re right.  I gotta do this.  For that third emerald.  And for Tails.”

“You gotta do this?” Ray asked, blinking.  “What about ‘we’ gotta do this?”

Sonic shook his head.  “Nah.  It wouldn’t make sense for both of us to risk our necks down there.  If you’re still taggin’ along, you can meet me at the edge of the zone.”

“Look, pal, don’t feel like you have to prove anything to _me_ of all people,” Ray pressed briskly.  “’Cause I meant what I’ve been saying, about not hangin’ back anymore.  I’m not doin’ it, not ever again.  I’ve got no problem backin’ you up if you need it.”

“I know, Ray.  I get it.  But… well,” Sonic said smugly, “I _am_ the fastest.”

Ray rolled his eyes.  “Now there’s the hedgehog that loved getting on my nerves in the good ol’ days.”

“The one and only,” Sonic said with a smirk.  “I’ll see ya later, Ray.  Or I’ll be waitin’, I should say.” 

“Heh.  Droll, quill head.  _Very_ droll.”

As Ray took off, Sonic stared down into the churning drop off.  He could already feel his nerves whirling up in a clamor the longer he looked.  Deep.  Unending.  The unyielding force of his last breath escaping him, vanishing in a glimmer of popping bubbles while the clock ticked.  More than anything, he’d hated the helplessness.  He was the fastest thing on the planet, but he could only move as fast as the currents allowed. 

But it was for the third emerald, and that stood without compromise like an exclamation point.

It was for Tails, and so Sonic gathered up his satchel, tying it securely by a thin black cord around his waist.  He doubled knotted to be sure, then triple knotted for good measure. 

“Well… look out below, I guess.”

Sonic jumped right in, nose pinched, immediately regretting it less than five seconds later.  His entire body seized up as the cold clapped like a steel trap around every muscle.  He sank, all ground out from beneath his feet, deeper… deeper…

When he dared to open his eyes, he saw nothing but murky outlines at first.  Through a glittery funnel of sand, the lines sharpened into the mouth of a long, descending tunnel. 

_Maybe I should’ve let Ray come along after all._

In the tight grip of his other hand, he felt the yellow emerald begin to pulse yet again.  He could see the bright, flowery yellow flame from its heart, even down here, where the sunlight began to taper off into milky columns.

 _Hate this,_ he thought as he forced himself to move, down the slope of the tunnel until he’d reached another drop off, taking in gulps of air from drifting bubbles where he could.  _Hate this.  Hate this.  Hate this.  Hate this.  Hate this._

Every time, without fail, Sonic could hear his heart start to drum when he felt his chest burn for air.

Leaping over a nest of spikes, waiting in the belly of a pit below, he’d never felt _slower._

 _Dying slowly,_ he thought as he leaped another spike pit and ducked a little lobster shaped robot rotoring its way over his head.  _This is like dying slowly.  It’s like bein’ squeezed to death.  Air.  I need air again.  Need air again.  Hate this.  Hate this. **Hate this.**_

Sonic floundered blindly along as the water darkened, the sun fell away like an eclipse.  It robbed him of all sight as he slipped up against the freezing brick wall of the ruins.  He felt out with his toe once in a while, jumping whenever he came up on empty space.  Undoubtedly, any drop would only plunge him deeper, farther off, until he struck some place where there were no air bubbles to save him.

He nearly yelped out the last of his air when his fingers fumbled along something stretchy.  It practically slurped him in, he felt it slip over his fur with a shuddery tickle that had him backpedaling madly.  Then to his amazement, Sonic found the iron slave weight of the water had slipped off of him completely.  Like pulling himself off a yoke, he was free, he could breathe, and he could _feel_ himself rising up slowly through the water.

“Don’t that just figure,” Sonic gasped out, laughing in a hard wheeze.  “Giant air bubbles…!  Giant air bubbles, down here, of all places…!” 

The emerald in his hand began thrumming harder. 

Closer, he thankfully noted.  They were getting closer. 

Sonic was disappointed to see the narrow little corridor he’d drifted up to, knowing what typically happened when bubbles met a rough surface.  Bracing himself was the worst part.  He heaved precious air in and out, clenched his eyes shut, balled up his fists.

_No air.  No air.  No air._

Mentally slapping himself, Sonic tried to force a calm surface.    

The giant bubble popped, and Sonic was thrown mercilessly back into the dark, into the cold, with only the glow of the Chaos Emerald to guide him farther along. 

He didn’t have to go that far into the corridor, which was a good sign.

But there was an omen, he felt, when his groping hand was suddenly yanked by the wrist straight down.  It left his heart clawing up into his throat, left his legs weak as jelly.  He hadn’t been grabbed by anything, no, and the only badniks he’d really run into were a couple of grounder bots and a lobster bot.

No, this imposing force was a current.  A very decided, very _downward,_ very _deeper into the water_ current that the hedgehog wanted no real part of. 

In his hand, the emerald’s yellow light was as searing as a tiny sun.  Against his leg, Sonic could feel the blue emerald piping up its agreement. 

 _You’ve gotta be kidding,_ Sonic thought spitefully.  _You two have gotta be pulling the world’s worst prank.  Worst.  Prank.  Ever._

He knew, even as he jumped in without counting – because counting would just make it worse – that Chaos Emeralds didn’t have much humor to them. 

Sonic was taken, eagerly accepted by the current the way a god takes a sacrifice.  He hurtled like a shooting star straight down, then he veered so sharply to the left that the rock thumped audibly against his ribs.  He chewed into his lip against every urge to scream.

_Left._

The emerald’s light spiraled up, high and bright and almost scorching hot in Sonic’s hand.  It welded his grip to it.  The emerald didn’t just cry, it _shrieked,_ it railed for him to keep leaning to his far left.  Keep going left if he knew what was good for him.  Keep going left even if it _killed_ him. 

 _And knowing my luck,_ Sonic thought.  _It’s gonna.  This is gonna kill me.  This is gonna_ kill _me…!_

He could already feel his chest starting to burn, feel his lungs start to ache.  He wheeled his free arm as uselessly as a broken rudder to try to correct his course, to stay left, _stay left_ if he knew what was good for him.  Sonic carted left again, and was met by another slab of rock brutally whipping over his lower back. 

 _I need air,_ Sonic’s fear, lent a voice, cried as shrilly as a newborn child.  _I need air.  I need air!  I can’t breathe!!_

Another left.  Another crashing pain.

_I can’t black out.  I can’t.  I won’t.  I can’t.  I can’t breathe.  Can’t breathe.  I can’t.  I won’t…!_

Sonic had thought the water had hated him right back, when he’d been outrunning it in the Labyrinth Zone.  He learned, swiftly, that the water back then had been sickeningly kind in how it tried to strangle him.

_I can’t._

Another left.

_I can’t!!_

Burning. 

Need.

Burning for air.  Need air.

_I can’t…!  I can’t breathe I can’t breathe I can’t breathe I can’t breathe I can’t –_

Sonic spun loose at last, breaking off from the current that had kept him chained and beaten against the freezing rock behind him.  He didn’t need to look at the yellow emerald to know he’d gotten where he needed to go. 

The emerald was nestled snugly in a bed of rubble stones, once in slumber only to glitter awake here and now.  Bright silver fire consumed the darkness of the water, and Sonic lumbered towards it with his free hand open and desperately grasping.  It was there.  Right there, gloriously there, every key he needed to just get _out._

He had never felt happier, shoving an emerald into his satchel. 

Riding the current straight down to the lower levels of the ruins, he’d never been happier to find a sip of stale, ancient air in the bubbles that rose up below.  He nearly hiccupped, drawing it in as he followed a glowing trail of power rings that kept the ruins suffused just enough that he could see.  He didn’t burn, didn’t flame for a gulp of air, but rather he burned for the surface. 

Let him on land again, let him _run_ again. 

_Get me out.  Get me out of here.  Get me out, I can’t move, I can’t run, I can’t move, I can’t breathe, I can’t…!_

When he found a giant bubble waiting to ascend gently towards the surface, Sonic could have sworn he came close to crying.  He leaped right into it, embracing the air inside for everything it was worth as he whooshed it in and out of his lungs.  He practically hyperventilated, even as he rose among the scattered power rings that guided the way.

By the light of the power rings, he saw the white streak of the first spear hurtling out of the brick wall across from him.  He nearly screamed away the last few breaths the bubble could hold, nudging his weight barely so against the bubble until it hobbled out of the way.  He nearly screamed, he nearly cried, dodging yet more spears and a pair of lobster bots the entire way up. 

Not that he would ever admit any of that aloud. 

The fresh torment of the water was a dirty secret, just between the two of them.

 

“Sonic!”

Ray found him eventually, not that he’d hidden himself, exactly.  The hedgehog was lying on his back in the shallows.  His face was lifted to the air, drawing in treasurable gulps that felt every bit like luxuries, now.  The simple act of breathing had never left him feeling more privileged.

“Aw, man.  That bad, huh?”  The squirrel skidded onto the sand beside him, tapping at his shoulder.  “Sonic, c’mon man!  Speak to me!”

“Heh…!”  Sonic lifted groggy eyes to match their gazes.  He was faring better than when he’d first emerged out of the lake, coughing, throwing up water by the mouthfuls, his breath wet and rattling.  Better, but not great.  “Come closer, Ray.”

“Don’t start talkin’ like that, pal,” Ray said, frowning.  “C’mon, don’t even joke…!”

“Closer, my old friend.”

  Reluctant, Ray crooked his head and leaned in.  “Crud, you didn’t get hurt down there, did you?!  Sonic, if we gotta find you some help then–”

Sonic forced himself to sit up, ignoring the angry flare in his lower back.  He’d hit those walls harder than he’d thought. 

Ray shot a hand down to hold him up, a meek effort on his part to help the hedgehog meet him halfway.  “What is it?” he asked softly.  “C’mon, pal.  Talk to me!”   

Sonic looked Ray square in the eye, and grinned.  “I told you I’d be waitin’ for ya,” he said, then lifted a hand to his brow as he wheezed out dramatically, “ _You’re too sloooow –_ ack!  _Hey!!_ ”  He flopped like a fish as Ray promptly dropped him back in the shallows.

“Glad to see you’re perfectly all right, blue boy,” Ray said flatly.

“All right and ready to win my academy award, if not for _your_ messin’ up our big scene,” Sonic retorted.  With a heaving grunt, he pushed his own way back to his feet.  Never had he been more welcoming of the breeze against his damp fur.  “In all seriousness though, yeah, that’s not somethin’ I wanna do again any time soon.  If ever.” 

Never sounded like a perfectly amicable arrangement.  He’d played it off well this time.  Had Ray shown up just a few minutes earlier, he’d have been treated to the sight of Sonic lying there and trembling while he nearly suffocated inside his own head over and over.    

“Well I hate to cut into your performance there, my fine thespian friend, but I’m pretty sure we’ve got some company waitin’ up ahead.”  Ray stood and pointed a little farther down the coast.

“How can you be so sure?”

“Maybe I’m not as quick as you in the air, but it pays to get a bird’s eye view of things.”

“All right.”  Sonic leaned his way into a quick stretch first for one leg, then the other.  “I’m ready to go when you are.”

“Heh, arent’cha always?”

“Then let’s get to steppin’!”

The pair wasted no time, charging across the final stretch of coastline before Aqua Lake broke into another stretch of flat green plains farther northwest.  Of course, Ray was entirely right about company waiting for them before they could take their leave; another one of Robotnik’s clunkers, this time in the shape of what looked like a giant sea lion.  Or what was _supposed_ to look like a sea lion, Sonic figured.  It was all sterile gray plates and joints, half its face streamlined into a dark visor that shot the sun back at them in a single blinding streak.    

It scuttled about in a strange patrol up and down the beach, sand and bits of coral belching out from beneath its tires.  Every once in a while, it spat a mechanical barking of _arr doo, arruff, arrreeeee,_ a bizarre parody of what it was supposed to imitate if Sonic ever saw it _._

“Man, it’s even uglier up close,” Ray complained.

Sonic smiled wryly.  “Almost as ugly as Buttnik.  Almost.”

“Nah.”  The squirrel chuckled softly and shook his head.  “Not even almost.  That’s not even a contest, believe me.”

“Eh, I’ll take your word for it, for now.  In the meantime…!” 

The hedgehog wasted no time going in on his instincts.  The badnik didn’t seem to be sporting any spikes, lasers or flamethrowers, so it was best to simply drop the attack while it didn’t suspect anything. 

Or at least, it hadn’t _seemed_ to, but it certainly caught Sonic well enough on the tip of its nose when he got close enough.  Before Sonic could even figure out what was happening, he found himself bouncing in balance atop the thing’s nose as perfectly as a beach ball. 

“Whoa…!  Hey!!” Sonic sputtered out as well as he could between bounces.  “What’re you…!  C’mon…!  Lemme…!  Down…!  Ya big…!  Hey!!”

He was catapulted about ten yards down the beach before he rolled back to his feet, though not with much grace.  He spat out a big mouthful of sand, shaking more of the stuff from his quills like a sheepdog out of the rain.

Ray snickered.  “Y’know, some people would just call that bad karma, Sonic.”

“Not another word, fuzz butt.”

Sonic folded his arms, glaring the robot down as it rolled smoothly over the coastline after him.  He wasn’t entirely sure how to go about handling _this_ one, not one that could just deflect any move he made on it. 

“What do you think, quill head?” Ray asked.  “Gonna need some backup after all?”

“Nah, just gimme a second.”

The robotic seal’s flippers whirred.  It let off a questioning _arreeeee,_ then hiked its head straight up to the sky.  Atop its nose, a puckered red sack began to swell up perfectly like a balloon over the mouth of a helium tank. 

“Hm…”  Sonic cradled his chin thoughtfully in his hand.  “Maybe…”

“Uh, Sonic, what’re you – Sonic!!”

Ray could shout however he liked, he was too late just the same.  Sonic had already leaped, his arc as beautifully high-curved as a rainbow as he came down hard atop that swollen red balloon. 

_BOOM!_

It went off like a firework with a fiery gust under the force of Sonic’s quills.  His ears were still ringing even as he unfurled, looking down to see the thing beating its flippers furiously against the sand.  It was twisting its head fiercely every which way, too.  Judging by the ugly crack in its visor, the compressed air had held a more profound effect than it was supposed to. 

Sonic landed on the balls of his feet, this time as nimbly as an alley cat.  “I think I’ve got this thing figured out, now,” he said.  “Just leave it to me.”

Ray rolled his eyes.  “Go on, then.”

“With pleasure.”

The seal immediately steeled its attention on him, jetting forth on a burst of speed that found Ray scrambling off with a cry.  Sonic sprang right over it as it charged, going so far as to award the thing a friendly wave as he landed.  Taking none too kindly to this, the seal charged again, and missed again as Sonic hopped back the way he came. 

“ _Arrruff!_ ”  The seal groused indignantly.  Behind its cracked visor, a weak red sparkle of circuits wavered.  “ _Arrdoo!  Arrreeeeee!_ ”

“Yeah, yeah, arrr-ee to you too, buddy,” Sonic replied.  “Let’s see your party trick again.  C’mon!”

Without many options, the seal again hiked its head back like a howling wolf to do exactly this.  A red balloon swelled out of the tip of its nose, and once again, Sonic leaped and struck. 

The seal quailed, flapped its flippers, and a shower of red sparks erupted from the gaping wound across its visor. 

“Looks like you found the prize weak spot,” Ray said, now between a swung pair of kicks.  A small flurry of grounder bots had treaded their way ashore, so now the squirrel was being kept respectively busy. 

“As if there was any doubt,” Sonic yelled back as he landed on the seal ‘bot’s other side.

“Just get to it, would ya?”

“Take care of your own business first, there, Ray!”

Sonic and the seal’s song and dance went about this circle a few more times.  It would attempt to rustle up one of those balloons, Sonic would leap, and in spite of the damage it would try again after a blind charge or two.  It was almost to Sonic’s utter disappointment.  The seal was built well enough to bar Aqua Lake from unarmed visitors, but a sharp tool in the shed?  Far from Robotnik’s finest.

Sonic came down in a final, decidedly vicious lunge.

The balloon burst, and so finally did the seal’s mechanical brain as it gushed out of the shattered visor in flames.  It lowered its head, chuffing out a final _arruff-arrdooooo_ before its plating buckled. 

“Thank you, thank you, I’ll be here all week,” Sonic said idly, brushing sand off his front.  “Don’t forget to tip your waiters, ladies and gents.”

Ray couldn’t seem to help a round of applause.  “Hey, I’ll hand it to ya,” he said.  “You said to leave it to you, and I’m glad I did.  Might keep ya around after all!”

“Keep _me_ around, huh?” Sonic grinned.  Watching another one of Robotnik’s hunks of junk go down had left him in a far better mood.  Admittedly, he’d exorcised quite a few of the jitters that Aqua Lake’s ruins had left in him in the course of that battle. 

“Sure, I’m feelin’ generous,” Ray replied with a wink.  He jerked a thumb over his shoulder at the green plains now behind him.  “What do ya think, pal?  We ready to move on?”

“You’re askin’ _me_ that question,” Sonic muttered as he shoved past.  “Let’s go.  And while we’re at it, let’s never book this place again.”   

 


	10. Green Hills Zone

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> you know
> 
> that level that made me rage through 3 continues because it relies on a bullshit guesswork mechanic that throws you on the mercy of landing on either a jump spring or a pit of spikes with no rings :')

Green Hills, if Sonic were to put it nicely, was the boring cousin Alvin of Green Hill.  It wasn’t a bad zone, per se, as Sonic would have taken it over Aqua Lake any day of the week.  It was a nice little romp full of hills and valleys and outcroppings that made for natural ramps, a few spike pits here and there to keep things interesting, not to mention overrun with power rings. 

Still, nothing about it really stood out fantastically in the hedgehog’s memory.  Maybe there were a few more natural ramps here, maybe a few extra loops to run.  It was also a bit farther from its respective coast, he supposed.  He could still see the ocean as he ran along the grassy trails and hooked his way up the loop-de-loops, but it was nothing like climbing the plateaus for the breathtaking view of Green Hill.

Sonic _liked_ the view of Green Hill Zone. 

It was a relief compared to Aqua Lake and Sky High, though, so Sonic decided to take a blessing for what it was.  And if Sonic was prepared to take it easy for a zone, it was safe to say that Ray was doubly ready. 

Even the Chaos Emerald had come easily enough.  A bit of showing off on the jump springs – totally all Ray’s idea because Sonic would _never_ – had launched Sonic to the plateau where the purple emerald lied shining in the tall grass.   

If Aqua Lake Zone had been his penance, this was a decent step right back out of it.

“Hey, Sonic?”  Ray was perched atop the craggy crown of one of the loops.  He was next to hanging upside down, the better to be heard as Sonic cleared the loop with a burst of speed.  “Hey!  Hey, Sonic!”

Sonic screeched to a stop.  A few winding feet behind him, the grass was smoking and thoroughly scorched.  “Yo!  What’s up?” he asked.  “C’mon, Ray, you’re cuttin’ right into my momentum!  Y’know I hate that!”

“You gettin’ hungry by any chance?” Ray asked.  “I dunno about you, but flaxen and sunflower seeds aren’t cuttin’ it right now for me.”

“Psh.  Sunflower seeds.”  Sonic shook his head and crossed his arms.  “You live off _that_ and then ya wonder why you’re hungry?”

“Hey, not all of us can live off chili dogs without puttin’ on about two hundred pounds,” Ray shot back, laughing.  “I think we’re makin’ some pretty good time, aren’t we?  I mean, four emeralds in, and we’re about halfway up the island!”

“Maybe, but the clock’s still tickin’.”

Ray looked at him skeptically.  “And you’re not the least bit hungry?  C’mon, Sonic!  Guy like you has _really_ gotta watch his fuel!” 

Sonic opened his mouth to argue, then thought better of it when his stomach furiously snarled to life.  He _was_ hungry, now that he’d stopped and allowed it to catch up to him.  After his venture through Aqua Lake, in fact, he could have safely said he was starving for how his speed burned through calories. 

“Okay, okay,” Sonic said, tossing his hands up.  “We can stop.  I could eat.”

“Now that’s what I like hearin’!”  Ray flipped gracefully off the top of the loop, gliding to his feet.  “I’ll get some firewood.  I saw a whole dead tree back there that’d be perfect!”

“Somethin’ tells me you might’ve planned this.”

“ _Planned_ this?  Now c’mon, pal, I might’ve been the brains of our little operation way back in the day–”

“Yeah, okay,” Sonic snorted.

“But I’d _never_ go so far as to plot somethin’ so nefarious as stoppin’ for dinner,” Ray drawled, wiggling his eyebrows.  “I mean, what kinda squirrel would I be, am I right?”

“Shut up and get the firewood.”

Ray threw him a mock salute.  “Ten-four, good buddy,” he chirped merrily, then glided back off on the cross breeze. 

A couple hours later found the two roasting a spit’s worth of hot dogs and a pot of mixed nuts over a small fire.  Gradually, the late afternoon set in.  The sun made colossal shadows of the plateaus, striping Green Hills in dark spots that would have suited Sonic for a nice midday snooze on any other occasion. 

Noting the lazy rapport of cicadas chirping and the musical hoot of whippoorwills found Sonic his answer as to why this zone was so appealing.  Green Hills wasn’t so much a place for adventure, unless you counted a few gambles on the springs.  Maybe it was simply the best chance you had for a late afternoon palaver without having to worry about too many of Robotnik’s junk heaps ruining it.

“Huh.  Not a bad place to kick your feet up,” Sonic remarked.

Ray shifted a little, tail twitching.  “Heh, yeah.  Kinda wish it was under… mm.”

“What?”

“Nothin’.”

Sonic gave the spit a quick turn.  “C’mon, don’t get all weird on me,” he said.  “You got somethin’ to say, then say it.”

The squirrel shrugged, his look distant.  “I dunno, pal.  I guess I just wish that we’d met up again under better circumstances, y’know?”  He took up a dead branch and poked at the kindling, nudging through the cinders.  “I mean I get it.  Not like Robotnik’s givin’ us many reasons to meet up for a casual lunch, or social calls, and all.  But… still…”

“Yeah.”  Sonic nodded somewhat gravely.  “I think I get it.”

After Sonic had gone his own way, he supposed he hadn’t realized the off-chance that Mighty and Ray might have still needed their band together.  He was almost ashamed to admit that he hadn’t really cared back then.  He'd had something to prove.  They might have been his pals, but they were also cuffs and chains on his ankles.  He was Sonic, he was a blue streak of wind itself, and the wind couldn’t be kept.  Wind could be friendly, but it was no real friend to anyone, not really.

Then going his way about Green Hill Zone, he had found Ray, eyes glassy and mind halfway gone forever inside of a buzzbomber.

“I’m sorry,” Sonic said.

“What?” Ray flicked a look up at him, utterly puzzled. 

“I said… y’know,” Sonic muttered, gesturing vaguely.  “Could’ve kept in touch better, I guess.  Or at least checked up on you guys once in a while.”  He scratched behind his quills almost nervously.  The motion itself reminded him of the kid, still locked up in Robotnik’s Scrambled Egg stronghold farther northwest.  He'd done that whenever he was thinking, or whenever he didn’t want to answer a question; the fox would scratch at the back of one of his ears. 

_Don’t let the kid wind up that way.  Just don’t.  He’s just a little kid._

Ray chuckled, though the sound was devoid of humor.  “Like I said, not much time for socializing these days,” he said.  “’Sides, not like I’m much better.  I… I kinda lost track of Mighty.”

“You _what?_ ”

“He went off on his own, Sonic.  He wanted to fight in his own way.  You know how he is,” Ray said, his tone wavering.  It was something caught painfully between self-assurance and the pop of nerves.  “He’s like you, once he gets an idea in his head.  It’s like talkin’ to a rock.”

Sonic sighed.  “Great.”

“I don’t think they’ve caught him.”

“You can’t know that,” Sonic pointed out crisply.  “You don’t know it until you’ve split one of those suckers open.  Ain’t like there’re signs.”

Pulling the lid to the hanging pot open, Ray gave the boiling fruit and nuts inside a quick stir.  He repeated the motion with the little pot of chili hanging next to it.  “I know that,” he said very quietly.  “But I guess I… I just don’t think they’d take him that easy.  I mean, not like I was exactly a hard case back then.”  He scoffed under his breath, stirring with irate vigor.  “This whole thing stinks.  You think the ugly egg-face would’ve learned his lesson after the first smackdown you threw on him.”

“Yeah, well, that’s the way it goes,” Sonic said bitterly.  “He gets up, I kick him back over.”

The squirrel fixed his attention on their fire, ears flattened.  “That’s… heh, I guess you just put in words the whole reason I’m still taggin’ along with ya.”

“Huh?”

“What’cha said about Robotnik getting up,” Ray clarified.  “ _You_ kick him back down.”

Sonic paused.  He was willing to give the standing resistance in the other zones their props, but well, humility didn’t change anything.  _He’d_ been facing down Robotnik in the Final Zone, inside a chamber of ten-ton pistons trying to crush him like a roach.  _He’d_ dealt Robotnik the blow that sent him careening into the darkness –

“Not like I finished the job,” Sonic growled before the thought could finish.

“That’s not the point.”  Ray rummaged through his pack, handing Sonic the small loaf of white bread he’d kept.  “Think your chili and dogs’re about done.”

“You’re havin’ one, too.”

“In a pig’s eye.”  Ray scrunched his nose up, balking at the very idea.  “Too spicy and way too messy.”

Sonic grinned, cutting a decent enough bun out of a hunk of the bread before laying one of the sausages in.  “Ray, ol’ buddy, I’m trying to help you develop what we like to call actual _taste,_ ” he said.

“I’ve _got_ taste!”

“Right.  Seeds and acorns, the epitome of flavor, I forgot.”

Ray huffed, scooping a small ladle’s worth of his own fare out of the other pot into a mug.  “I eat fruit and berries too, thanks very much.”

“Ohhh, well in _that_ case…”

“Stuff it and eat your garbage, hedgehog.”

With so much unraveling in his mind now, Sonic didn’t think he _would_ be up to eating.  He surprised himself as he scarfed down his fourth chilidog within the ten minute silence that followed.  Caught up in running, in burning for air, in all his thoughts drifting to Tails and the other Chaos Emeralds, the hedgehog had fiercely buried his hunger. 

 _Clock’s still tickin’,_ he thought, forcing himself to start in on a fifth.  He was still hungry, ravenous, but he was also itching to get back on the road. 

“So, Sonic…”

He looked up, eager for a break from the inside of his own head.  “Yeah?”

“What’re you gonna do with the fox kid once ya rescue him?” Ray asked, delighting in a spoonful of his third helping.  “You said he was orphaned, didn’t ya?”

That wasn’t much of the break Sonic had been looking for.  He tore off a bite of his current chilidog and tried to think as best he could while he chewed deliberately.  “I have no idea,” he admitted, when there was no getting around it.  “I was thinkin’ all about that, the night before Robotnik attacked our camp.”

“Poor kid.”

“Yeah.”  Sonic bit, chewed, thought.  “And I don’t think I’m any closer to an answer, even here.  I mean, the rest of that zone doesn’t even _care_ what happens to that kid, Ray.  The whole situation’s messed up.”

Ray nodded with dark understanding.  “Seems to be a habit of local zones,” he said, then smiled with perfect irony.  “Maybe if they stepped in to take care of their own, they wouldn’t have all these wild kids runnin’ around fightin’ mad scientists.”

The crack wasn’t without its truths.  Sonic didn’t want to think what would have happened to South Island, if he’d had any sort of normal upbringing among parents that would have kept him chained far away from the fight against Robotnik. 

“It’s different in this case,” Sonic insisted.  “Tails is just a little kid.  He should’ve never been involved, it never should’ve been a question.”

“ _None_ of us should’ve been,” Ray said with a bit too much ease to be convincing.  “I know I sure didn’t ask for it.  But there I was.”

Sonic winced as if he’d been slapped.  The very thought of splitting open a rotorbug and finding Tails trapped inside…  “I don’t wanna think about that,” he said indistinctly. 

“You’re not gonna have much choice there, Sonic.”

“I know.”

“Poor little guy,” Ray mumbled, turning over another thatch of dry kindling.  The fire popped and snarled beneath a crossed pair of logs.  “I mean I know we were pretty young, too, but… not _that_ young.  Not _young,_ young.”

“Not much I can do for him,” Sonic said.  He started in again on his chilidog, but his appetite was fading fast.  “Hate it for the kid, but… I mean, what can I even do?”

“Well…”

Sonic glared particularly thin razors in the squirrel’s direction.  “I’m not so sure I like how _that_ thought trailed off, Ray.”

Ray bit at his lip.  “You’re _really_ not gonna like what I’m thinkin’ now, then.”

“Lay it on me.”

“We could always use more fresh faces to stand up to Robotnik.”

“ _Ray!_   He’s a little _kid!_ ” Sonic practically shouted, shooting up to his feet.  Ray grimaced and huddled back, but Sonic was already riled up.  “You’re sayin’ he should be fighting along with all of us?!” 

“I’m just sayin’ if you wanted to show the kid the ropes, then you could–”

“The whole reason I let Tails stick with me was _because_ he was in danger, the way he was living,” Sonic kept on, fuming.  “Heck, he’s in danger _now!_ Your answer is throwin’ him into _more_ of it?!”

“What, like he’s gonna be safe with a normal family in some middle’a nowhere zone?” Ray retorted. 

“Better than runnin’ around with me!”

“Now’s not the time to be humble, pal,” Ray said almost gently.  “Fact is,  _you're_ number one on Robotnik's list, now.  Not me, not Mighty, not the rest of the resistance.   _You._ And now Robotnik _knows_ that the kid means somethin’ to you.  Let’s say you drop the kid off on a family’s doorstep that _would_ love to have him.  Let’s say, for argument’s sake, that Tails even decides he likes it and sticks around.  But Robotnik is still out there.  And now he knows you’ve got a spot he can dig a knife in, a way to twist your arm.  What do ya think his first move’s gonna be?”

The question cleaved right through Sonic’s growing anger.  His fury crumpled and fell away, leaving him as stranded as he’d been the night before Robotnik’s attack.  His stormy expression wilted and he sat back down, staring sulkily at the fire over his knees. 

“It’s my fault, then,” Sonic said.

The squirrel adamantly shook his head.  “Don’t.”

“Don’t what?  Admit that I’ve basically put the kid in danger as a _potential hostage_ for the rest of his life?”

“ _Don’t,_ ” Ray said again, the sharp ice hanging in that word alone enough to force Sonic’s attention.  “Don’t go that way, Sonic.  It ain’t your fault, same as it wasn’t yours for what happened to _me.  I_ know whose fault _that_ was.  And _you_ know whose fault _this_ is.”

He did.

He did, but to remind himself of the fact would also serve to remind him of the enemy they were all facing.  Robotnik was still out there.  Still out there, planning, building, and manipulating stacked odds.  Free to do so because he’d escaped the Final Zone. 

 _Is that gonna be it, then?_ _Is everything just gonna come down to that night?  To who_ didn’t _get taken out that night?_

“Don’t,” Ray repeated, correctly translating the direction his thoughts were taking.  “Just don’t, Sonic.”

“I let him get away.”

“Because you’re not what he is,” Ray said firmly.  “And don’t tell me that just because he never _managed_ to kill you that it somehow doesn’t count.”

Sonic scowled, but found that he couldn’t exactly argue.  Every last one of those zones, every last one of those traps had screamed the doctor’s intentions in underlined letters.  But it was somehow easier, much easier to pin it down to his own shoulders than admit that Robotnik had _escaped_ him.

“Yeah, well, we’ve seen how safe the kid would be with _me,_ ” Sonic muttered.  “The kid got snatched up _while_ he was with me.”

“Somethin’ that’ll never happen again when you get your hands on that fat lard, right?”

The hedgehog sighed, just about spent on the discussion.  “If you think the kid would be so much better off with the resistance, then _you_ can take him!”

“You flatter me, but you know which one of us he’d be safer with, Sonic,” Ray said, shaking his head.  “Besides, it wouldn’t be _me_ that Tails would want.  And you know it.”

He did, and the truth served to only make things harder.

The rest of the meal was passed in a heavy silence, and Ray seemed almost careful not to look at Sonic for too terribly long as he ate his fill. 

“Let’s go,” Sonic finally said, flipping in the last bite of his chilidog.  It was cold and bland in his mouth, and it hit his stomach like a stone.  “We gotta get going again.  We’re wasting too much time sittin’ around talking and not getting up and movin’.”

Ray didn’t argue as he shoveled in the last of his own meal.

They were up and moving a couple brief hours before the evening.

 

Tails had never been so conflicted in his life. 

He was padding along as quietly as he could through the corridor, the cage and its picked lock far behind him, armed with only a flathead screwdriver.  He was running, but trying to run quietly, all the while almost itching for Robotnik to show up.  He’d have loved to offer that creep a piece of his mind (and maybe a piece of his foot upside that fat head), yet at the same time he’d never been so terrified in all his life.

In the Emerald Hill Zone, late one night, Tails could remember settling down in the fork of a tree.  He also remembered the shattering snarl of thunder later on, the lightning that crashed into the palm swaying right next to him.  He could remember screaming, huddling back from the flames.  They were nearly swept over him by the wind alone.

The mere sight of thunderheads had stirred an unease in him ever since, and that same unease was what he felt _now._ The same way he’d always tighten every muscle waiting for lightning to strike, he waited now for Robotnik.

 _But I can’t be scared forever,_ he thought, as he scampered through a pair of double doors.  They swished back silently to permit him.  _Sonic wouldn’t be scared, would he?  Nuh uh!  He’d just wanna get outta here!_

More like Sonic would have first found Robotnik and kicked his butt, and looked cool while doing it, but that was neither here or there.

“Where’s the way outta here, though?” Tails muttered, seeking any sign of windows, an elevator, anything that would either help him escape or give him _some_ sign of where he was.  “There’s gotta be _somethin’_ that can help me out, here…!” 

In this next room, it didn’t seem so likely.  It was more of the same; terminals, monitors, a small workbench toward the back with a half-finished rotorbug exoskeleton.  No sign of an animal or citizen inside it, at least. 

 _For now,_ Tails thought with disgust. 

Still, the sign of the computers gave him a faint glint of hope alongside inspiration.  “Maybe…!  If I can access the GPS on you, then _you_ can tell me somethin’ about where I am…!” 

The fox happily strode up to the computer, standing tiptoe at first just to peer over the edge.  When he couldn’t quite reach the keyboard, he hurried to grab a nearby black milk crate, flipping it over before clambering up on top of it. 

“Better,” Tails said, before he started tapping away.  “Now let’s see what’cha got for me…!”

A blue screen popped up, etched with Robotnik’s insignia, alongside a prompt for a password.

“What?!  Aw, man….!  Lame!” 

Tails tapped a pensive finger, and typed in _EGGSRKOOL._

_Incorrect password._

_ILUVMYMUSTASH._

_Incorrect password._

Tails sighed with aggravation, taking a quick look around the room.  He couldn’t stand here tapping in whatever popped into his head forever.  If Robotnik’s security was competent, and Tails had no reason to believe it wasn’t, then a few wrong attempts too many could find him locked out of the system entirely.  Not to mention it could alert Robotnik to what he was up to. 

“What would _Sonic_ put in?” Tails asked himself, that much gloomier when no answer surfaced.  “He wouldn’t _have_ to, ‘cause he’d have kicked Robotnik’s butt and got out by… wait a minute…!” 

A lightbulb shone bright in the fox’s mind, the answer as clear and brilliant in front of him as the daylight he was seeking. 

“That’s it!  That’s gotta be it!”  He set to typing.  “Now I jus’ gotta–”

**_CLANG!_ **

Tails froze. 

Ice rippled down his spine.

The noise struck like a pail thrown mightily against a brick wall, stopping his heart.  It was followed by another, then another, and then yet another.  Tails recognized the spaced pattern of footfalls easily enough, but that hardly answered his question as to what in the _world_ it could be.  Not that it mattered, he supposed.  Whatever it was, it reported to Robotnik, and that was more than enough reason to want nowhere near it.

He was already scrambling off the crate, searching wildly for a place, any place.  Somewhere to run, somewhere to hide.

_Clang!  Clang!  Clang!_

They were picking up the pace. 

 _It knows I’m in here!!_ Panic rose in Tails until he squeaked, trying to fight back a cry.  Was there room under any of the consoles?  No, not enough.  He was small, for sure, but not small enough to squeeze into a space _that_ tight.

_Clang!  Clang!  CLANG!  CLANG!_

_So where?!_ He set his tails to whirling, zipping to the workbench.  _It knows I’m in here!  It knows I’m here!  It knows and it’s coming and it’s gonna take me to Robotnik and…!_

_CLANG!!  CLANG!! **CLANG!!  CLANG!!**_

They only slowed to a stop right outside that door. 

“Sonic…!”  Tails clutched wretchedly at his face, trying his hardest to steady his shaking.  “Sonic, where are you, help me…!  Sonic, c’mon, what would you do…?!”     

Maybe he could squeeze between the cabinets beneath the workbench, if he was lucky, though he wouldn’t have felt safe betting on his ability to breathe in that tight a fit.  Then atop the bench, there it was.  The half-finished rotorbug, with just barely enough of an opening in its back to fit him, if he sucked his breath in and moved at just the right angle…

 _But is it gonna fool one of Robotnik’s badniks?!_ Now that was the million ring question that might have marked the difference between life and a trip to the roboticizer. 

When the doors swished open, Tails lunged for it like his feet were on fire.  Only one way to find out, he could practically hear Sonic say in his head. 

The rotorbug’s innards were a mess of crossbeams and wires, having yet to be cleared for the potential _slave_ to be powering it.  Tails could already feel something razor thin slicing at him across his right arm, over his left knee, etching into his back as he turned to better pull himself inside the bug entirely.  He had to bite his lip to keep from yelping, huddling down and flattening his ears to keep one from getting caught in the teeth of a pair of cogs. 

Maybe he would have been better off under the workbench after all, but heaven knew it was too late to change his mind, now.  Tails went completely, perfectly still where he was half crouched, half standing in a mess of mechanical parts that felt like they were grinding slowly into him.  It really _was_ like being eaten alive.

 _Don’t move,_ instinct told Tails as those metallic footsteps clattered into the room.  _Don’t move.  Don’t you dare move._

He didn’t.  Despite the wire slicing through his fur, despite his breath shrinking horribly in his lungs, despite every urge to shiver, he didn’t.

Whatever was skulking through the chamber wasn’t making too quiet a job of it.  Tails winced when he heard the crate go flying, striking the wall and floor with a clatter.  He wished more than _anything_ that he could see what was going on, but all he could do was listen. 

Listen while it clanged, _clanged,_ **_clanged_** even _closer._

It shambled right for him, huge and ominous, that much Tails knew by his ears alone.  He squeezed his eyes tightly shut.  _Go away.  Go away.  Go away,_ he silently urged it.  _No one’s here.  Nothin’s here.  Go away.  Go away…!_

_**Clang.** _

**_CLANG._ **

Tails heard it, _felt_ it looming right over the workbench. 

 _No!!  NO!!_ He remained crouched, though now he was scrounging up the courage to fight every instinct still hounding him to keep still.  _It knows I’m here!  It knows where I am!  It’s almost here!  It’s close!  Too close!!  Too close!!_

 _Don’t move!  Don’t you_ dare _move!_

He almost screamed when he heard it kick the cabinets beneath the workbench, a deafening crash of metal upon metal.  He almost screamed when he heard it ventilate air the same way a feral bear might have as it went about the business of ripping apart its kill.  That was all Tails was to it, now.  A kill waiting to happen, something waiting to be mauled, torn apart by claws that could do a heck of a lot more than a bear’s.

The clamor stopped. 

It rose.  Tails could hear its parts whirring, joints clicking.  Another of its ventilated breaths whistled out, and Tails could all but feel it rolling hungrily down the back of his neck.  He came so dangerously close to shivering that he had to clench every muscle to stop himself.

Then…

_Clang…!  Clang…!  Clang…!_

Its footfalls were winding off, fading with distance.  Still heavy and noisy at first, then slipping away as quietly as a dying breath in the dead of night.  He didn’t move.  Not until the doors had swished shut behind it, not until the clanging rattled off into the corridor, not until he was met by dead silence once more. 

Tails reluctantly opened his eyes, and saw nothing but a row of hanging wrenches on the wall backing the workbench.  “Close one…!” he breathed out, as he twisted free of the rotorbug’s now crunched up insides.  He froze every couple seconds or so when something tore, something clicked, but eventually he managed to yank his left foot loose and stumble back out onto the workbench.

He could feel blood trickling down his arm and leg.  He ignored it. 

“Never again,” Tails promised himself, free to shudder now at the sight of the rotorbug half a foot behind him.  “N-never again, ‘m never d-doin’ that again, never…!” 

Hopefully he wouldn’t have to. 

Tails wasted no time hurrying back over to the computer to pick up where he’d left off.  The crate aside, at least the terminal was in one piece.  He drew a deep breath.  His mind racing as it was, it took a minute or so for him to even trace his way back to the inspiration that had struck him before his prompt heart attack. 

“O-okay…!  Okay, o-okay…”  Tails ushered one breath out after another, slowly, the better to steady the helm.  The better to ease the tremor of his hands.  “Okay.  S-stay calm, Tails.  S’okay now.”

Hauling the crate back over, heart still slamming in his chest, he climbed back on top of it and began to type.

_IHATETHATHEDGEHOG_

The prompt blinked.  Tails waited.

_Access approved.  Welcome, Doctor Robotnik!_

“Yes!” Tails pumped a fist in victory, only too happy to wait for what surfaced as a steel gray menu popped up.  It offered him a choice between SERVICES, NETWORKS, COMMUNICATIONS, and DATA. 

_Data…?_

Communications was his first notion, but the last choice piqued his interest like a neon sign.  _What kinda data?_ Tails wondered, canting his head.  _Maybe stuff about the robot factories?  Maybe stuff about Sonic?_ It was clear enough that Robotnik kept tabs on Sonic – how _else_ would he have known _exactly_ where to find him in Emerald Hill? – so the question remained, how long did the file go?  And if Tails should happen to ‘accidentally’ erase it, how far back would that set Robotnik’s efforts? 

“Only one way to find out,” Tails muttered.  It seemed to be the motto of the day.

He clicked DATA and dove in.  Not much to see at first, just a directory of files to what Tails immediately took to be schematics, designs and notes on various robots.  There were a couple of files named after zones, but they simply turned out to be geographical maps of different regions, likely kept for strategically choosing which zones to conquer.  Tails was almost disappointed.  For Robotnik keeping all his stuff _so_ secret, there sure wasn’t anything all that enticing.  Tails scrolled through the file names, eyes peeled, vigilant nonetheless…

“Wait a sec…!”

He froze over a file, ominously named, DEATHEGGSCHMTCS. 

“Wait a sec!!”  Tails clicked that one right off as soon as he saw it, and the schematics he saw unfold before him left the fox slack-jawed.

It was _huge._ A rounded starship to be hauled by what appeared to be aerial fortifications Tails couldn’t even begin to imagine the groundwork for.  The schematics had it pegged to Robotnik’s likeness, of course, because Tails had learned long ago that Robotnik was a self-absorbed jerkface.  The doctor’s flaws notwithstanding, though, Tails had to hand it to him, he was ambitious.  This ship was _enormous._ No, that didn’t begin to encompass it.  _Gigantic.  Humongous._

“Whoa…!  It’s… … _gimongous!_ ” 

And it was a work in progress, apparently, according to another attached file full of otherwise unassuming notes.  _Metropolis Zone?_ Tails squinted, hoping to have read that location wrong.  He hadn’t.  The starship’s very construction was beginning right there on West Side Island!  

“So _that’s_ what ugly ol’ Robuttnik’s doin’ on West Side!  I gotta tell Sonic about this, I gotta warn him…!” 

Another sudden clank from the hallway found the fox snapping his mouth shut, hands slapped over his muzzle for good measure, praying he hadn’t been heard. 

_…If I can get outta here, anyway…!_

_  
_

 

The giant iron ball came charging down into the valley, and Sonic leaped before it could flatten him.  It spun with a squeal through the grass before it hauled itself up to the other side, and Sonic landed neatly on the slope its opposite.      

“Whoohoo!”

When the iron ball unfurled, snout first, it stood twice Sonic’s height in the segmented shape of a tan plated armadillo.  It rocked its weight from one foot to the other like a wrestler, sending tremors rattling through the ground underneath it.

Ray swooped in.  “My turn…!” he said, delivering a kick upside its head that almost knocked it off-balance.  “There we go…!”

The armadillo tucked back into a ball.  For a second it spun out like a wheel on ice as it tore through grass and earth, then it leaped into the air as if thrown by a catapult.  Ray barely managed to glide low enough to dodge it, while Sonic sped down the hill into the little valley for cover.  It landed with a solid boom on the other hill, snarling as it unrolled again. 

“My turn!” Sonic said cheerfully.  He was already tucked up into a spikey ball of his own, sawing his way uphill before leaping.

The ‘bot tried its hardest to catch Sonic in its stubby arms, but leaving itself wide open caught it a gutful of quills for its trouble. 

Sonic kept momentum, spinning for everything he was worth.  He could feel the grate of its underside catching on his spines, and like its living counterpart, he could feel the ‘bot was far weaker once it was caught beneath its armor.  Robotnik had ground his design a bit too close to real life on this one.

It struggled on one leg and then the other, raking its claws uselessly against him.

“Oh c’mon,” Ray complained from a few feet overhead.  “That’s takin’ way more than your turn!”

The hedgehog didn’t stop, not until he felt the circuits sever.  When the flames crawled over his back, only then did he dare to tumble back out of the way as the robot buckled into itself.  It crumpled into halves, the shape of which left Sonic disturbed right before they disintegrated in smoke the same as any of Robotnik’s other inventions. 

He let out a whoosh of air, watching it go.

Ray landed a few feet behind him.  “You always gotta get the last hit in, don’t’cha?” he asked almost bitterly.

“I’m just glad Mighty wasn’t here to see _this,_ ” Sonic said.  “On a scale of one to ten, how much you think he would’a flipped?”

“Oho, eleven, guaranteed.”

“Heh, or twenty.”

The two friends forged on ahead.  Sonic gave Ray the go-ahead to break open the waiting capsule, freeing the small herd of feral deer and rabbits trapped inside.  They came down in a miniature stampede, more than happy to bound off back over the hills.

“Get along, little doggies,” Ray cracked under his breath. 

“Heh.”

Sonic turned his gaze farther northwest, where the fringe of Green Hills ran a solid twenty or so miles before the foothills of the Glimmer Range rose off the horizon.  The sun was beginning to set, practically burying itself in the purpled mountains ahead.  They were getting closer, drawing ever nearer, but time was still running out. 

“We really gotta get movin’,” Sonic said. 

Ray looked northwest too, and froze, almost uncomprehending.

“What?”

“We’re gettin’ close to the base,” Ray almost whispered.  He turned away, though not without Sonic seeing a jagged spark of fear in his eyes.  “Glimmer Range.  That’s his territory.”

“You ever been that close?”

Ray shook his head.  “Not without… mm.”

He knew already what flew through the squirrel’s mind without even asking.  Not without being dragged there.  Not without screaming for help that wouldn’t come.  Not without being thrown to the roboticizing line.  Not without his free will being snuffed out like a candle.  Not without seeing the world through the robotic compound eyes of a buzzbomber. 

At a loss, Sonic looked away and shrugged.  “Hm.  Least you won’t be alone this time.”

Ray stared despondently at the ground, lost in his memories, and wouldn’t look up.

“C’mon, Ray,” Sonic said.  “Talk to me.  You were gung-ho with your feet movin’, earlier.”

“It didn’t feel real until now,” Ray replied.  “Not until… not until I was staring it down.  Again.”

“Yeah, I guess those robots we’ve been smashin’ the whole way here could have belonged to anybody,” Sonic said dryly.

“That’s not what I mean.”

“So what is it?” Sonic asked impatiently.  “Look, if this is your stop, then you better tell me now.  I don’t have time for this.”

The squirrel shook his head.  “You wouldn’t…”  He trailed off, as if feeling the utterly penetrating look Sonic was sending his way. 

“I wouldn’t get it?” Sonic finished for him cynically.  “I think I get it more than you’re thinkin’, fuzz butt.”

“Do you?”  Ray lifted his gaze just enough to meet Sonic’s eye.  His hands were balled up tight by his sides, his tail twitching.  “Maybe you were fast enough to go bargin’ in on the winning side, but for some of us?  It ain’t that easy, pal.” 

“And that’s probably why I was bargin’ in alone,” Sonic snapped.  “Because the rest of the resistance wanted to run their mouths when they were in the zones, but when it came to taking some _real_ action?  They just wanted to hang back and sit around!”

“What have you got against them, anyway?” Ray shot back hotly.  “That’s not even close to the truth, and you know it!”

Sonic felt a cusp of flame erupt in his chest, so molten hot he almost swung his fist right there.  “It’s not, huh?” he asked.  “Then tell me somethin’.  Tell me how’re we even in this situation, Ray.  Tell me how we’re _still_ trying to fight Robotnik off of South Island, for all the talk the resistance does of drivin’ him right back out!”

“Robotnik’s forces have–”

“Better yet,” Sonic cut in fiercely, every frustration of the past few months pouring out now.  “Who in the ranks was backin’ me up when I was in Scrap Brain?  When I was close to drowning in Labyrinth Zone?  When _everything_ was tryin’ to gun me down in Starlight Zone?  Show me how much the rest of the resistance has done.  Go on.  I’ll wait.”

Ray snapped his mouth shut.  He hung his head again.  Inside his gloves, his grip tightened enough to crack his knuckles. 

“Tch.  Yeah,” Sonic said.  “That’s what I figured.”

“Sonic, I’m…”

“Is this where you’re stoppin’, Ray?” Sonic pressed a final time, tapping his foot.  “After coming this far, this is where you fall back with the rest of the resistance?” 

Ray glared at him.  “I said that I was done hangin’ back on the sidelines.”

The hedgehog nodded.  “All right,” he said, looking back toward the bruise colored shadows of the Glimmer Range.  “Then we gotta get to the hills before dark.  I’m headin’ off.  If I don’t see you there, then I’ll know which way you went.”

Before Ray could so much as protest, he was off again with a crack of wind as the greenery blurred around him.  Sonic couldn’t remember the last time he’d moved his feet so quickly.  He tore across the plains like lightning, chasing the last of the daylight as it retreated further beneath the rocky tower of Gimmick Mountain. 

He didn’t bother looking up for any sign of Ray.


	11. Gimmick Mountain Zone

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> other fans: but sylvie, the game gear games had nothing memorable about them - 
> 
> sudden interruption by gimmick mountain remix
> 
> sorry friendos your argument is not valid

Sonic couldn’t say he’d expected Ray to follow.  Not really, for all the squirrel’s talk of burning bridges with the sidelines.  After everything he’d seen firsthand of Robotnik’s plans for any living, breathing thing, after the fear had sprung awake in his eyes, after he’d suffered Green Hill Zone again in his own head, what should Sonic have expected, honestly?  Some part of the hedgehog couldn’t truthfully blame him. 

But even all these things considered, it hurt.  It hurt, drawing upon the shadow of Gimmick Mountain and finding himself alone.  No sign of the squirrel gliding overhead, no sound of his voice in the distance, no nothing. 

 _Gone the way of the resistance,_ Sonic thought angrily as he followed a railway into the foot of the mountain.  _Gone back to the sidelines after all.  So much for that._

Alone again.

It was fine.

Sonic had gone it alone before, he could very well do it again.

The inside of the mountain was an insatiable gut of titanium platforms, iron straits, and churning wheels alongside the telltale rails and carts of mining operations farther underground.  Sonic wasn’t surprised at all.  Before Robotnik’s hostile takeover of the zone, it had been a giant industrial forge coveted for resources often poured into ships, airplanes, and weaponry on the side.  Useful for South Island’s wealth, to say the least. It must have also practically served a beacon for Robotnik’s mechanical armies to seize it the same way they had Starlight and Scrap Brain; a little brute force and the hanging threat of roboticizing every surviving worker.

Not many residents on South Island tried calling Robotnik’s bluff on that one.

“Well, sooner I get through here the better,” Sonic muttered to himself, shuddering a little.  It was nothing like the prior zones.  Nothing but cold steel, nothing but shining metallic surfaces, a _perfect_ zone for the egg belly to settle his ground troops. 

He ran a line of power rings to the first gray-plated jump spring.  A straight leap up, and Sonic found himself inspired by the sight of large ventilation fans embedded in an ascending column up the rocky wall.  Tucking in, the hedgehog only hissed through his teeth a little when he felt his spines catch the blade of a fan.

Spinning around and around, Sonic leaned back and kept himself lodged as best he could until he felt he’d built enough momentum to head higher.  He rocketed right up, catching the next fan with another well aimed tuck and riding it higher up still.  Catching sight of a platform a few yards out of reach, he spun his way around the next fan and hit the steel plates running. 

“Man, it’s a good thing Egg Belly’s got that hover-thing to get his butt around,” Sonic grumbled, leaping off the edge of the platform onto a narrow conveyor belt.  “Him gettin’ splattered across this zone would probably bring the whole mountain down.”

He leaped off the conveyor belt, taking a narrow ventilation shaft down to a new, narrow path that wound into darkness.  A path, he imagined, that would lead him into the gnawing mouths of more deadly machinery, if Gimmick Mountain was anything like Robotnik’s other territories.

It didn’t matter.

If Robotnik held true to his word, then Tails was only a zone away.  Sonic could run every danger this dump had to offer for that.

“Not that I _do_ trust that rotten egg for anything,” Sonic muttered.  “Only because there’s no choice.”  

The path opened to the curved, notched horizon of a giant horizontal wheel, turning around what looked like a great titanium spindle.  Reverberating through the spindle, Sonic could hear the thundering roar of _something_ being beaten into the earth below.  Some sort of drilling machine, if he had to guess, one that just happened to be the size of a pair of mansions stacked atop one another. 

Running in place along the curve, Sonic learned pretty quickly that the only way to go was up to the next wheel.  Left or right found him facing walls of spikes, because why not, spikes were everywhere he _didn’t_ need them to be.  He felt the quaking thump of the machine’s heart quiver up his feet as he jumped, out and then over, ascending straight up to get to the next wheel.

“And I’m not gettin’ much of a hint as to how to get outta this mess,” Sonic said, to the satchel of emeralds jouncing now on his hip.  “Don’t suppose you guys are gonna give me a big hint to save the day and bail out Tails’ hide at the same time?”

They didn’t offer a word. 

“Heh.  That’s about my luck, I guess.”

Once he’d ascended the drilling machine, he found the comfort of a mine cart sitting atop the next platform.  Without any thought at all, he hopped in and rode it down the perfect iron slant, trying to hear himself think over the deafening beat of pistons and hydraulics.

_There’s gotta be a way outta this._

He knew the stakes and it was no question what he’d pay for them.  The only question remaining was how to wrest back control long enough to keep both Tails and the emeralds out of the madman’s hands. 

Sonic barely noticed the cart vaulting off the end of its rail.  It tottered dangerously in midair for a few seconds, right before it landed safely on yet another platform on the other side of the chamber.  The cart rocked so hard it shook Sonic to his joints, to the roots of his teeth.  He didn’t mind it.  There were more important things to think about than a ride he’d taken before, or the ridge of deadly spikes sticking up out of the floor rushing up to meet him… wait.

_Crap!!_

“ _Whoa!!_   Hold on, _stop_ …!  _STOP!!_ ”  Sonic’s eyes widened, hands flying to the sides of the cart in a death grip.  “All right, well this is either gonna work or get really ugly, really fast...!” 

 _SHERRRWRUUUNCHCHCHCH!!_  

Sonic flattened his ears on impact.  The sound was worse than the actual feeling; the cart rattled around him until he almost thought it was falling apart, but the sound was a handful of nails through dusty slate.  He pinned himself back in the corner, forcing his hands up to better cement them to the sides of his head.  The cart pitched from one side to the next, but the sound howled through him at an octave that curdled his blood.  He wanted to scream along with it, to shout for it to stop when he caught flinty blue sparks rising up out of the edge of his vision.

“Someone needs to stop this crazy thing…!!” 

As if hearing his wish, the cart finally buckled to a shaky halt.  With one last terrific shudder, it clapped down on its front and dumped Sonic to the ground.  Turning his now aching head, he saw nothing but smoking shrapnel and scattered chips of iron where the spikes used to be.

“Well… that’s one way to do it!”

He certainly wasn’t going to question his luck now as he sped off, farther still into the mountain.  Luck was the sort of thing that tended to run out when you were trying to sort it.

-

Sonic stopped when he felt the burn of the emeralds once more through the satchel.  All of them woke with a start that flamed almost painfully against his hip; in the darkness of the forge he saw four glittering eyes peering at him.  Halfway up a perfectly smooth steel ascent, he had to plant his toe to keep from toppling over on his face as he held the satchel up off his leg. 

“Again, huh?” he asked.  “I was wonderin’ when you guys were gonna speak up.  So where’s your buddy, while I’m biting?”

He held the satchel by the scruff of its opening like a lantern, hoping to feel them light the way ahead.  Wavers of blue, purple and silver danced off the iron walls, growing brighter as Sonic turned around.  He furrowed his brows, facing what looked like a vertical wall rising to meet the ceiling. 

“I dunno where you guys are getting your intel,” Sonic said.  “But that just looks like a wall to me.”

Regardless of how it appeared, the emeralds twinkled insistently. 

“All right, all right.  Lemme see.  But if I get a headache from this, I’m blamin’ you guys.”

Tying the satchel back around his waist, he crouched low, took a leap, and grit his teeth for the coming crash against unyielding metal.  One could imagine his surprise when he felt it buckle like cheap tin, folding against his spines and opening to a trip of air that took his stomach for a split second. 

Rolling onto his feet, Sonic almost dazedly opened his eyes to a find himself in a small corridor.  The shadows receded, staved by the almost angrily glowing jewels in the bag.   

“Huh.  Guess you guys know what you’re talkin’ about after all.”

The hedgehog followed a trail of power rings out the other side of the small chamber, jumping out to trot the rusty, flapping path of a conveyor belt running long past its time.  He could hear the bluster of the giant fans ahead; what this closed off space could have been used for was anyone’s guess.  Sonic couldn’t feign much of an interest, hopping the jump spring to snag himself on the fan a few yards above.  When he’d spun it as fast as he could go, he flew up to the edge of a platform and caught the barest edge of it on the hook of his fingers. 

One look down, and he saw a roughly fifty foot plunge awaiting him if he should slip.

Not that he would allow that to happen, hauling himself while running his feet up the plated wall to mount the edge.  Sonic couldn’t peg what it said about him when he stared down that steep drop and felt nothing. 

_Nothin’ I didn’t see in Starlight, or Scrap Brain._

He ran down the waiting incline and jumped a small cliff of jagged plating.  Sonic didn’t even need the emeralds to point out where it was, he could see it for himself, glaring like a sizable red eye where it had been scattered across a lone deck plate.  Smiling, he swiped it up in one hand and held it up to the satchel.

“Found your buddy, guys,” he said to the other emeralds waiting for their lost brother.  “Pretty sneaky one!  Good thing you guys are better at hide and seek than I am!” 

 _Five emeralds,_ he thought with a heavy relief as he threw the red emerald in with the others.  _One more to go.  Just one more.  Last one._

The problem was Sonic had a good idea of where the elusive last one was, and who could have likely swiped it already if it lied buried this far in _his_ boundaries.  Maybe Sonic was a bit faster with the hunt than Robotnik’s badniks, but there was no way Robotnik himself _hadn’t_ found the final emerald.  No way would he have let any territory of his go unsearched. 

Which meant, Sonic figured, it was going to come down to a fight.  Emeralds or not, he was dead last to trust Robotnik’s word.  Sonic certainly wasn’t worried about that as much as he was about the kid going free, because if Robotnik happened to swat him like a fly after getting his promised emeralds? 

Well, what would likely come after was better left unsaid.

“I’ll figure somethin’ out,” Sonic promised himself as he set off back the way he’d come.  “Just hang in there, Tails.  I’m still comin’ for ya.”

-

 Tails had long since lost track of time. 

After scampering into what looked like some sort of storage room, he’d found relative safety hiding inside a tall red tool locker pinned against the back wall.  Farther out of sight, the fox figured, further out of mind.  He’d played that game several times in Emerald Hill.  The clanging footsteps had fallen silent in the distance for quite a while, long enough that his eyes gradually slid shut. 

He’d promised himself it was only going to be a few minutes.  Just enough so that ‘his head wouldn’t be all fuzzy’, his eyes wouldn’t be ‘all heavy and achy’ anymore.  His head certainly wasn’t fuzzy the next time he stirred, but he’d also rolled himself into a tiny ball down on the locker floor.  Every joint was locked and stiff. 

There was no telling how long he’d been asleep.

**_CLANG!  CLANG!!  CLANG!!_ **

Only that he’d wasted precious time he was now running out of.

_No!  No!!_

Tails had already flattened himself against the back of the locker, eyes wide, heart hammering.  No way.  No way had that _thing_ tracked him here, there was simply no way it could have found him already.  The base was _huge!_ It plunged down into the earth and wound on forever compared to a small fry like him, how could it have…?

 _Heat detection,_ his father’s voice mumbled near the back of his mind.  Tails could almost see his dad standing in his old workshop, some contraption or other in his hands.  He was smiling, Tails knew that even though the picture blurred like a rippled reflection.  _That means this thing can find someone because of the warmth they give off.  Pretty neat, huh, bud?_

 _Good for taking all the fun out of hide and seek, anyway,_ Tails’ mother piped up from the other side of that memory.  She was laughing, however far away her voice sounded.  _Do you think he really understands?_

 _Sure he does!  He’s got_ your _brain, doesn’t he?_

_Mmhm.  I’ll give you a few points for that one._

_Heh, I’ll take ‘em!_

Tails understood it better than mom had given him credit for, all right.  

**_CLANG!  CLANG!!_ **

_Don’t move,_ instinct raged at him with renewed fervor.  _Don’t move, don’t you dare move._     

Without even opening the door, Tails could somehow _feel_ the thing lurking a few feet outside the locker.  Curiosity baited him to nudge the door open.  Just an inch, a scant inch, just let him _see_ what the ugly thing was that was hunting him.  Just an inch couldn’t hurt, could it?  Maybe he could compromise, go half an inch…

_Don’t!  Don’t, you dummy!_

The fox was frozen solid in his own fear, hand hanging awkwardly in the tiny space between the doors and his chest.  Beneath his fur, every inch of skin ran as cold as ice.

**_Clang!  Clang!_ **

He let out a low, heaving sigh as the footfalls died into weak echoes.  Once again, it seemed he’d dodged a bullet.  Of course, for good measure, Tails didn’t move for a good fifteen minutes or so in the silence that descended. 

Nudging the door open – wincing at the painfully high creak of the hinges – and stepping out found Tails alone, again.  His heart was still jackhammering near the back of his throat, and he couldn’t quite knock off the slight tremor in his legs, in his hands.  Robotnik had to know that he was missing, and Tails had a sinking feeling that this _thing_ clanking around the base was loosely connected to that fun tidbit.

“Which means I gotta get outta here now, ‘cause I gotta tell Sonic ‘bout that Death Egg thing in Metropolis.”  The fox tried his hardest to sound brave, voicing the sentiment aloud.  Judging by the stubborn jitters that still knocked his legs, he couldn’t say he felt confident.  “An’… an’ not gettin’ turned into a robot too, ‘cause yeah, that’d be pretty bad.”

Backtracking his way to the storage room’s entrance, Tails peeked out into a corridor that forked off two ways.  He sighed a little in frustration.  Everything looked the _same_ in this place, all sterile gray walls and grated steel floors, lit by dull increments of fluorescent lights.  No distinct signs on the doors, no landmarks, no nothing. 

How did Robotnik _not_ get lost all the time down here?

“Okay… I gotta make a tough choice, here,” Tails told himself, looking slowly from left to right.  “I gotta use some real _strategy._ ”  He started to point from one direction to the other.  “Eenie, meenie, miney…!”

Left won.  So as not to further push his luck, Tails banked right as fast as his feet would carry him.  At the far end of the right hall, there lied a single door thrice his size that swished open as he approached.  Flattening his ears, furrowing his brows, Tails tore off on fresh speed forged by determination.  This was what Sonic would do, he was sure of it. 

The inside of the chamber was lit by an eerie, thumping purple light.  Tails stopped dead in his tracks, taking careful looks around for any sign of cameras, motion sensors, anything he’d expect a guy as crazy as Robotnik to have lying around.  Maybe he’d even have a big wall full of lasers he’d have to jump and say cool stuff over, just like in the movies –

“Nuh uh, it’s not like the movies,” he reminded himself as sternly as a five year old could.  “This is all real, an’ Robotnik’s even worse than _those_ bad guys.”

When Tails’ eyes finally adjusted, he found reminders of that quickly enough all around him.  The purple light, blinking from some sort of power supply stationed in the back of the chamber unveiled a lengthened path of conveyor belts.  They wound in serpentine patterns, out the gaping mouth of some sort of cubic machine that was safely squared off by chainlink fence crowned in barbed wire.  Tails allowed his gaze to wander, and found another fenced off area where there sat three egg-shaped capsules.  Each one beared a single glinting window, a plunger switch on top. 

He recognized them with a sinking heart and a memory that clicked back to the stories that swarmed the other islands.  Every horror story he'd ever heard, warning everyone of Robotnik and his methods.  They were capture units.  Prisons for keeping anyone captured by badniks, and there they stayed in certain areas of the zones until Robotnik’s forces collected them. 

“N-no…” the fox closed his eyes, clenched his fists.  “N-no, I couldn’t have found…!” 

Opening his eyes told him that yes, yes he had. 

Tails had found a small roboticizing facility. 

The very epicenter of any animal’s nightmares, the very focal point of his own personal terrors since waking in Robotnik’s base.  For a long, shameful few minutes, Tails regretted every second of his escape.  At least when Robotnik caught him, he’d have some idea of where he’d be headed.

“Sonic…!” 

 _Look at you, bein’ such a chicken,_ he chided himself anyway, even as his legs shrank to jelly beneath him.  _No way would Sonic wanna rescue some big scaredy cat who’s goin’ to pieces all ‘cause…_

He couldn’t even finish that thought, not even to scrounge up his courage.  Tails had heard plenty of stories about Robotnik’s factories, and not many of them featured happy endings.  Tails had watched a few of them on the news, courtesy of the display model televisions he could glance through the window of Emerald Hill's electronics shop.  Even the rescued non-ferals couldn’t recount their tale of slavery in Robotnik’s empire without going glassy-eyed and breaking down halfway through. 

Because having your free will stripped away by machines and being forced to attack and capture your loved ones didn’t make for great dinner conversation, but it sure ramped up a TV show’s ratings.  Who knew?

Tails was standing in the beating heart of every sentient’s worst nightmare. 

“If I’m so s-scared, t-though, then…!  Then…!”  Tails forced himself to look up from the toes of his shoes, through the fence at those prison capsules.  “H-how… y-you guys, you guys must be pretty scared too, huh…?”

Ferals didn’t have much in the way of guessing what was about to happen to them, but it didn’t make it any less horrifying, not in Tails’ mind.

 _So what would Sonic do, ‘fraidy cat?_ Tails’ own inner voice spat.  _Don’t just stand there and gawk at ‘em!  Do what a hero would do!  Do what Sonic would do!_

“I-I…!” 

He wanted to.  If he wasn’t so sure he would just mess it up, if he didn’t want to leave it all to Sonic when he got here, then–

“But w-what if…” Tails spoke up against that utter certainty, trying to edge his way around it, reason his way around it.  He didn’t doubt Sonic would be here, definitely not, but the time it would take the hedgehog to arrive and find and fight Robotnik, in all that time?  “You guys might get all robo-cized by then,” he concluded.  “It’d be too late.  Sonic would bust you out, but… it’d still be…”

Too late, because _he_ had been too scared to do anything. 

“An’ what kinda hero does that?” Tails whispered to himself, shaking his head hard enough to flap his ears.  “A totally lame hero, that’s who.  An’ if Sonic’s gonna need my help some day, then I gotta show him what I can do…!  I gotta…!” 

Just like that, in a flushing instant, his determination and courage were found at last.  Tails narrowed his eyes, glaring defiantly at the monstrous machine sprawled across half the giant chamber.  His tails whirling, he flew up to the gate in the fence, held tightly shut by a single padlock clasped about a wad of chains with links as thick as his fingers.

“Man, extra lame,” Tails grumbled, jangling the lock uselessly before inspiration struck.  He snapped his fingers.  “But if I had that one screwdriver, I bet I could pick this lock, too!  Don’t worry guys, I’m gonna be right back, ‘kay?  I’ll get’cha outta there!” 

It sent a chill ringing down his back when he didn’t hear a single peep from any of the prisons on the other side.  Could they even hear him?  Tails sighed, running his fingers sadly down the interlaced pentagons. 

“I’ll be back.  I know, you guys’re prob’ly really scared an’ maybe you can’t hear me, but… but I’ll be back!  I promise!”

No answer from the capsules rose to greet him.

Unnerved but unwilling to admit it, the fox turned and bolted back out into the corridor.  He was pretty sure that if he headed… was it left and then a right?  Or maybe it was a right, then if he’d backpedaled the other way, take a left, then a right?  Or maybe it was a left and then a right, but then another left?  It could have been a right, then a left, then another left and a right, but Tails already knew there was nothing to identify his way back. 

 _Is that why Robotnik’s got his base all… the same, like this?_ Tails thought.  _Is it to confuse prisoners?_

Tails stood there, rooted in place and considering his colossal labyrinth of options.

_Left, right, right, left?  Right, right, left, left?  Or maybe a –_

Caught up in his thoughts, he didn’t hear anything come ambling up the hallway behind him.  He only felt something wrench.  There was the suffocating pain of a vice snapping like a bear trap over his ribs.  Tails tried to scream, twisting now in the grip of what looked like yet another claw around his body.  He threw out one arm, but his right was thoroughly pinned to his side where it threatened to crunch right into his ribcage.  His breath came out in a shallow gust, clotted, staggering.  Kicking and struggling only shallowed the air that could even escape to his lungs.

**_CLANG!  CLANG!!_ **

All courage left the fox right then as he tried to scream and uttered only a squeak, as the _thing’s_ footsteps clomped like crashing cymbals right up behind him. 

“H…ey…!” Tails managed to choke out as he was clocked against the left wall.  His head swam, but he plowed his way back to the surface.  Lights twinkled dangerously before his eyes.  “L-let…!  Go…!”

Still gasping for his next breath, Tails only saw the door at the end of the hall swish open.  Striding out was the wide and round shape of Robotnik, approaching in measured steps.  He was _grinning,_ chuckling, as the claw tightened.

The claw wound back.  It struck him hard against the wall again, with all the visceral force of a hammer on a railroad spike. 

This time, Tails’ vision plunged into darkness.

            -

Sonic was not enjoying his current ride.  He’d found a moving platform forged of twisted blue pipeline, one among many in a network wound on near invisible tram cables that stretched in skeins throughout the forge’s upper levels.  Not the safest way for the former workers to descend to their shifts, but it was as close to safe as they were going to get in these conditions.

Not that Sonic felt particularly unsafe, nevermind the thousand foot drop into the pounding machinery below or the wedges of spikes in the ceiling… but it was all so _horrendously slow._

“C’mon, c’mon…!”  Sonic tapped his foot, chancing impatient looks at his wrist.  “Sometime today would be great!  I gotta move!  Some of us got places to be!”  He glared over the platform, fuming.  “This thing got a gas pedal?  Move it along, faster!  Faster!” 

The platform chugged smoothly along beneath another ceiling’s worth of spikes.  Sonic looked up at them, unflinching and perfectly bored out of his skull as three feet of deadly points rolled mere inches over his eyes. 

He sighed, exasperated.  “C’mooooon, c’mon, c’mon, gotta go, gotta jet, gotta move, hurry, haul it, beat feet, hit the bricks, hit the road, skedaddle, vamoose, bolt, beat it, hightail it, make tracks, rev up, peel rubber, pedal to the metal, kick on the afterburners, grease wheels, hit the trail…!” 

This went on for a while.  Until the platform ascended one final shaft, it was the only way Sonic really had to entertain himself.

“Ugh, _finally!_ ”

Sonic leaped up and over the ledge as fast as he could, soon as he was able.  Zipping off along the path, he almost expected to find an unguarded pair of exit doors that would open to the other side of the mountain. 

When he found the mechanical boar standing in his way, he couldn’t say he was disappointed. 

It stood twice Sonic’s height on a pair of wheels the size of his head, covered in sleek brown plates crowned in spikes, its scrunched face punctuated by a blunted piston for a nose.  Once it caught sight of him, there was only the rumbling snarl of an engine that sounded very well practiced in high impact charges. 

Sonic crouched to first stretch one leg, then the other.  “Heh.  There, see?  Was givin’ me somethin’ to do so hard?  Might have to make this fast, though.  Aside from a deadline here, you’re kinda ugly to look at.”

The boar charged, engine belching out smoke through the swoop of its tusks. 

Rolling and leaping over it was easy in itself.  This badnik was a bit quicker than the others, but of course Sonic was every other bit faster.  It kept on charging, crashing with a dull thunder into the iron wall of the corridor.  Sonic could feel the tremors ring up through his feet, and he gazed at the monstrosity with a fixed wonder of trying to see something he apparently couldn’t.  What had the point been in that, exactly?  Was it _trying_ to trash itself?

When Sonic heard the grating of stone and looked up, he understood instantly.

It was raining loosed shards of rock, most of which were harmless enough, but Sonic could both see and hear larger pieces cracking along the deck plates.  He zigged one way, zagged the other, and rolled his way up into the air. 

The boar hadn’t budged an inch from where its charge had ended.  Its engine choked and spluttered as if it were gasping for breath, hacking out more spatters of smoke.  All the while it tried regaining itself, the ‘bot’s shining white eyes flickered in its visor between iris shutters and little X shapes. 

More importantly, though, its spikes had retreated into its armor. 

It hardly took a neon sign to make Sonic an opportunist.  He barreled right into its back with a dull crunch, caving in its armor a solid inch or two. 

“That all you got?” Sonic asked, landing gracefully a few feet behind it.  The boar’s engine finally smoothed out its turbulence, whirling on him in as much of a rage as programming allowed.  “C’moooon!  _Toro!  Toro!_ ” 

Maybe it wasn’t really a bull, but eh, it was something with pointy bits trying to gore him.  Close enough, as far as he was concerned.

It tore off again in another charge.  Sonic did it one better this time, reacting in such split second time that the naked eye wouldn’t have caught it.  Clasping his hand on the ridge of its nose, he vaulted himself dangerously on the balance of only one arm before planting his foot on its forehead.  Its eyes only had time to flicker into Xs before Sonic launched himself up and over again. 

With another crash against the opposite wall, the boar loosed another shower of rock and debris.  Sonic started rolling the second he heard the clatter of pebbles along the floor.  He couldn’t quite help a flip of his stomach, hearing the boom of a boulder the size of a basketball narrowly miss his head by the breadth of a few inches.

Once more, Sonic seized his advantage.  He struck the ‘badnik as hard as he could, putting a quick spin on the blow to try his hand at drilling through that pesky armor. 

“Gotta tell ya, big guy, this strategy of yours ain’t doin’ you any favors,” Sonic remarked.  “Not that this is me tellin’ you to call it quits.  By all means–” 

Not that the boar needed any encouragement on the hedgehog’s part.  It was already tearing off after him in yet another charge, its wheels squealing madly. 

“That’s what I’m talkin’ about!”

Another leap, another crash, with the stench of burning rubber hanging in the damp cavern air.  Sonic dived out of the way another onslaught of rubble battering the floor behind him, slicing the quickest path to the once more stunned robot.

“Time to change it up a bit.  Sorry big guy, but I’m in a hurry and you’re still ugly to look at.”

Sonic poured on every ounce of speed he could as he tucked in and rolled, a lethal buzzsaw of spinning quills by the time he caught the boar by its tail end.  He could feel its armor chipping away beneath his attack, crumbling like a sheet of chalk beneath a hammer.  The boar was still too stunned to put in much of a fight. 

Crippled, it couldn’t even hope to buck off the hedgehog as he quite literally sawed his way up the spine of its armor.  He felt wires and tubes snap, heard oil spatter, heard circuits pop like embers through winter kindling.  Sonic felt it writhe, snapping its head left and then right before it finally collapsed. 

The hedgehog landed not too far beside it as what remained of its engine went up like a bed of coals.  His quills were a bit disheveled, but that was nothing a quick sprint and some wind wouldn’t fix.

“Annnnd that’s all she wrote.”

Sonic passed the smoking heap without much in the way of second thoughts.  Scratch one ‘bot.  One less badnik to worry about.  One more fight beneath his belt, preparing him for the worst that he imagined lied just ahead.

_The part where Egg Belly goes back on his word to get his mitts on the emeralds and off me at the same time._

After freeing the imprisoned animals in the next hovering unit, he found the bolted iron doors to the forge easily enough.  Sonic sent them crashing open with one vigorous kick, admitting the evening chill and the streaking orange glow of sunset some slanted ways ahead.  He frowned, lifting a hand to better shield his eyes against the final glare of daylight.  He couldn’t really say he was eager to hit the bricks; Sonic knew the trap that likely lied ahead, just as well as he knew that time was running out for him to go leaping into it.

“Probably just the way Big, Fat and Ugly wants it,” he muttered into the crosswind that rose to greet him.  Gimmick Mountain stood mightily in the Glimmer Range, and from the ledge he now stood on Sonic could see a shadowy valley about a mile ahead.  It had to be Scrambled Egg Zone.  What was likely going to be his final zone, if Robotnik had anything to say about it.

“Not that there’s much choice.”

There wasn’t, and there never had been.  Sonic felt pretty confident about escaping any trap the doctor had devised for _him,_ but there was still a fluffy orange factor to take into account.  Sure, Sonic could outrun Robotnik’s snares, but what could be done for Tails?  How in the _world_ was he going to bail the kid out?

Sonic glimpsed his satchel, now clumpy looking and full of Chaos Emeralds.  They would make a good incentive alone, but what switcheroo could he pull to _keep_ them in the right hands?

“I’ll figure it out the same way I’ve been doing all this mess,” Sonic finally said, shrugging.  “Fast.  On my feet.” 

Taking off down the rugged face of the mountain, he hoped it to be a promise he could keep.     


	12. Scrambled Egg Zone

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> sorry this chapter took a while! work got a bit nuts on me for a while, but hopefully a slightly longer chapter makes up for it! thanks for reading, love you guys! <3

When Tails next woke, it was hard to say.  For a time, lying there staring into an unbending blackness, the fox thought he might not have woken up after all.  It was dark, it was cold, Tails was plenty familiar with that in the chillier seasons of Emerald Hill.  But when he woke, his entire left side woke as well.  His arm and ribs flamed awake, and he found himself hard pressed to fetch a full breath while he forced his eyes open again, only to find nothing but blackness. 

_No, no, no, wake up!  Snap out of it! Wake up!  Wake up!!_

The last few minutes of his memory woke, too. 

Robotnik, walking in.  Grinning at him.

He shot straight up to his feet, ignoring the thumping ache in his back and arms.  Whirling in panicked turns, he couldn’t say he found any solace in the fact that he wasn’t chained or caged up again.  If it was Robotnik’s intention, it couldn’t mean anything good.

 _But where am I?!  Where_ am _I?!_

Before he could fall to palping about blindly with hopes for the best, a round halogen eye opened in the darkness above his head.  It lit up a small, circular chamber about five yards wide.  Nothing but a vaulted dome of dark gray metal, faced in black windows. 

Tails blinked.  “What…?  What _is_ all this…?”

“Awake at last,” boomed Robotnik’s voice from a speaker in the dome overhead.  It seemed to emanate from that bright halogen light, rattling the walls.  “You were starting to try my patience, fox boy.  But really, when you get right down to it, I suppose the timing here couldn’t be better.”

“What’re you…?!”  An increment more confident now that he could see, Tails spun around again, eyes narrowed.  “Where are you?!  Where’d you put me this time, huh?!”

“I wouldn’t worry about that,” Robotnik replied.  “I would worry more about… well, you’ll see soon enough.  I have a _surprise_ for you.”

“Somethin’ tells me I’m not gonna like it."

“Now, don’t be so quick to dismiss a _gift,_ my little two-tailed friend.”

A few paces behind him, Tails could hear the distinct whir of machinery.  He turned with his fists up, though not without feeling somewhat stupid for it.  If a robot was going to jump him to take him to the roboticizer, there was little he could do to stop it. 

But it wasn’t a robot _lunging down_ on him, rather, it was something rising up out of the floor.  It stood a bit taller than Sonic, all smooth silver luster with yellow stomach plating, the accent of a few bolts puckered out in its joints.  Other than the obvious robotics, Tails couldn’t help thinking it looked… just _like_ his hedgehog friend.  In a sense, it was.  A grave mockery, a hollow parody of Sonic’s likeness, staring blankly back at him through an eyeless blue visor.     

A note of genuine fear struck in the fox’s chest.  “What…?!  What is this?!  That’s not…!!”  Tails stepped back, flummoxed.

“Don’t you recognize your buddy?  Why, it’s none other than _Sonic._ ”

Tails froze where he stood.  He tried, however pointless it was, to piece together such a scene as his _hero_ being captured and roboticized by the big, fat, ugly and evil Doctor Robotnik.  Imaginative as he was, not even Tails could make this image fit. 

“Nuh uh!” Tails spat back.  He bared his teeth up at the speaker, at the light, his next best target after Robotnik himself.  “Nuh uh, you’re jus’ saying that!  That’s not Sonic!”

“Captured him right outside my base,” Robotnik went on, ignoring him.  “As it turns out, Sonic was attempting to break into my base from underground.  I suppose he had dire hopes of rescuing you and making off with the Chaos Emeralds.  Far from the best strategy, though he _was_ a bit tricky to pin down, to his credit.”

“You did not!!  Stop it!”

“A pair of grounder units had to corner him once he’d broken in.  He set off my security array and had the entire base on his tail in under two minutes.”

“ _Stop it!!_ ”

“They dragged him to me, kicking, screaming.”  Robotnik’s voice lilted with strange, wicked delight as Tails began to tremble in pure anger.  “Now granted, this all happened far faster than I would have liked, if that’s any consolation.  Personally, I’d have liked to keep him prisoner a few days.  Let him rot in one of my cells, let him _contemplate_ his fate, let him _writhe_ in anticipation.  But with you around serving an extra incentive for him… well, this did solve my pesky little hedgehog problem a lot more quickly.”

“ _STOP IT!!_ ” Tails shrieked at the top of his lungs until he nearly felt his throat tear.  He stomped his foot, ears flattened.  “ _YOU DID NOT!!  NONE OF IT’S TRUE!!  YOU DID NOT, YOU DID NOT, YOU DID NOT!!”_

A very tense beat followed in the wake of Tails’ outrage.  “Oh?” Robotnik finally asked, sounding calm though puckish over the matter.  “I didn’t, did I?  Am I hearing this correctly, fox boy?  Are you calling me a _liar?_ ”  His soft tone very much dared Tails to follow through.

Perhaps any other time, Tails might have caught this and snapped his mouth shut.  He was far too angry now, glowering with enthused hate into the visor of Sonic’s metal lookalike.  “Yeah, I am!” he yelled.  “’Cause that’s what you are!  You’re jus’ a dirty, lying lie-faced _liar!!_ An’ there’s _no_ way Sonic would let you catch him, Ro _butt_ nik!!  No way!!” 

He was tempted to fly up into that light and kick at the speaker.  It wouldn’t feel nearly as good as it would to kick Robotnik’s lying butt personally, but it would help offset the red fog that tunneled his vision… maybe.  Tails couldn’t recall a time he was this angry.  Not since the Kukku Army had tried stealing his family’s island had he felt his blood boil like this.

Yes, there was a chance he would pay for this outburst.  There was a chance he’d pay with his own freedom inside a roboticizer, even, but Tails was well beyond caring at this point.

To his surprise, Robotnik actually _laughed_ through the speaker, almost raucously.  “All right, all right, you can’t blame me for trying,” he said, and Tails could practically _see_ that ugly grin on his face.  “But seeing as how you’re apparently _so_ bored that you can’t stay put, I thought I would be nice and give you something to _really_ occupy your time with.”

“What’re you…?!” 

The question was choked off by something heavy clubbing him across the back, knocking him clear off his feet.  Tails tumbled roughly head over heel, landing almost flat on his face if not for flinging his hands out to catch himself. 

Head throbbing, the fox looked over his shoulder. 

Fake Sonic smiled as lifelessly as any of Robotnik’s other toys back at him, a pair of red iris shutters gleaming to life in that visor.  From an open compartment in its stomach plating, a large yellow gripper claw snapped open and shut on the tip of a winding cable.  Likely the thing’s weapon of choice.   

“Silver Sonic is a little quicker than that, fox.”  Tails could barely hear Robotnik’s voice over the deep ringing in his ears.  “Keep up.  If you want my advice, move a little more quickly and stay on your feet.”

Tails staggered his way back up to one knee, but it was far too late.  Silver Sonic rushed to greet him with a blare of jets, and Tails couldn’t even hope to react in time.  He first felt the air sweep clean out of his lungs before he felt his back crash into the far wall.  Then came the sharp pain of what must have been that claw knocking him in the stomach.  He retched, pushing himself to all fours and panting haggardly.

But Silver Sonic happened to be as relentless as any other of Robotnik’s machines.  Tails saw the glint of that claw in the light above before he felt it crack across his jaw, sending him flying again.  He couldn’t remember much beyond the initial impact.  He remembered seeing the floor rush up to him, but the next thing he knew, he was staring up at the ceiling.  Lights wheeled in crazy blue flashes before his eyes. 

“Come on, fox boy,” Robotnik snapped.  “Where’s that spirit of yours?  Are you really _that_ useless?”

 _Not gonna give in…_ The thought trailed as Tails found the wall behind him and began to pull.  It strained every muscle in his aching left arm, but he hauled himself to his feet.  _Not gonna give in.  Not gonna give…!_

The fox whirled his tails, seeing Silver Sonic gearing up to charge again.  His left tail ached with the strain, but he was both surprised and thankful to find himself being hauled up into the air.  A mere half foot below his feet, Silver Sonic stopped itself just short of ramming into the wall face first.

“Ha!” Tails couldn’t quite resist jabbing, turning on the speaker.  “Guess you didn’t think ‘bout me bein’ able to fly, did you, Robutt–”

The light was swallowed in an eclipse by a giant silver ball.  Tails glimpsed it for all of a precious second before he darted out of the way, yelping, leaving Silver Sonic to uncurl onto his feet in an elegant landing. 

“Looks as though the aerial targeting system needs some work,” Robotnik remarked. 

Tails scowled, but found himself on the move again before he could say what _else_ of Robotnik’s could use some work.  Silver Sonic had already spun into another leap at him.  Swooping down got him out of the way easily enough, but his strength was fading fast.  His breath came in short, puffy bursts over a stitch starting to wake in his left side.  He knew he couldn’t hope to keep this up. 

“Running out of steam already?” Robotnik mocked, as Silver Sonic attempted a third and then a fourth leap on him. 

“Ha!” Tails barked right back, hiking his nose up as defiantly as he could.  “Your dumb robot can’t even catch _me,_ egg head!  ‘S never gonna be able to catch _Sonic,_ so you might as well-” 

Silver Sonic leaped again, and this time, Tails was a second too late to swerve out of the way.  He saw a wall of rising silver, and then his entire face throbbed like a burning hot welt.  Clouted senseless, Tails felt himself lose the air before the floor darted up to meet him once more.  His chest burned.  He gasped for the breath that had been knocked out of him, struggled between his aching face and arm while his vision swam. 

There was no chance for the fox to even see the next blow coming, let alone dodge it.

In less than a second, Tails was slammed back up into the air.  Stars whirled crazily beneath his eyelids, and he felt a quick sinking sensation in his gut as he struck the ground again.  The next blow found his right side shrieking as he rolled a good five feet or so.  For him, it was hard to tell.  He was struggling between the tumble and the pounding ache in his ribs just to stay conscious, nevermind getting a beat on Silver Sonic. 

And then, at last, the pain finally... stopped.

The blows that had felt neverending stopped.

Across the small chamber, the robot stood with the calm vigilance of a statue. 

“Excellent,” Robotnik hissed, cleaving across the hazy distance of Tails’ faded hearing.  “You were hardly any sort of _challenge,_ granted, but it’s always nice to see the basic combat functions are operational.  And you’ve even shown me a couple of kinks in the aerial targeting system, so, that’s a plus.”

Tails spluttered, straining to open an eye.  The heavy stink of pennies filled his nose.  “W-what… what’re you…!”  He reached up to swipe at his muzzle, finding a sticky patch of fresh blood spattered across his glove.  He couldn’t say he was surprised, really, nor did he spare it much thought.  “It’ll never… beat Sonic…!” 

“Oh no, not in his current state,” Robotnik agreed.  “But I _do_ have an additional power supply here that I think will _really_ interest our mutual friend, when he gets far enough.”

Even through the churning black haze threatening to take him, horror crept on the fox readily.  It didn’t take him long at all to put the pieces together, head hurting or not.  “You…!”  Tails grit his teeth.  “Nuh uh, you couldn’t have…!”

“Well, well, you _do_ have some brains, don’t you?” Robotnik mocked.  “I have.  Turns out my excavation squads aren’t _entirely_ useless after all, and I intend to ensure their efforts weren’t for naught.”

“Never gonna beat Sonic,” Tails mumbled, mustering up the strength enough to shake his head.  He couldn’t manage much else, as his head came down like an iron weight on the crook of his arm.  “Never gonna beat Sonic.  Never, never.”

“I suppose we’ll just have to see, won’t we?” Robotnik snarled.  “Silver!  Put the brat out already so that we can prepare you for a _real_ opponent!”

Silver Sonic drew on him in as nightmarish a flash as he’d ever moved.

Tails didn’t see the blow come, but he felt it well enough when everything went black.

 

***

 

Sonic _hated_ Scrambled Egg’s tube system.

He _loathed_ it.  He _despised_ it with every ounce of his being, almost as much as he hated how _dark_ it became at night in Gimmick Mountain’s shadow.  Because frankly, the entire labyrinth of those tubes that carried its travelers across the zone made absolutely no sense in the first place.  There was no rhyme or reason for any of it, not when you could just sprint or leap most of the way if you could be bothered to find a path.  Spinning his way through the tubes had been enough of a pain, but if you hadn’t memorized the layout of the path you wanted to go?

Yeah, good luck.  As it happened, Sonic had lost a few precious hours on the whole system.

“ _Whoa!_ ” 

He sped out of the mouth of one of said tubes, the one that so _conveniently_ pointed straight down into a rocky bed of spikes below.  He drew a sharp breath.  If he’d timed it just right, then the drifting platform he’d jumped off of had hopefully chugged its way back to this particular pipe to catch him.  If not, then…

Well, he supposed his twelve years had been a fair run.

The hedgehog sighed with open relief when his feet hit solid ground, in lieu of being impaled by spikes.  The platform wavered a tad, but it juddered itself back to perfect balance as it eased along the cable.

“And it’s _goooood!_ ”  Sonic held up a referee’s arms, before he fell into his best Channel Eight anchor impression.  “ _Sonic the Hedgehog, how do you manage to be so awesome?_ Well, it’s not easy, but I somehow manage on a measly ration of a jillion chili dogs a day!”

Sonic leapt up onto the waiting top of a plateau and sped off, keeping his eyes peeled for any more of those exploding badniks ahead.  He hadn’t seen _those_ hunks of junk since Starlight Zone, and no, he hadn’t missed them.  Of course, they’d managed to become even _more_ of a pain hanging out on the higher cliffs, just waiting to detonate and send any daring soul plummeting into even _more_ spikes below.

Tubes, explosives, and an entire foundation’s worth of spikes.  Scrambled Egg was yet another zone where everything’s objective in life was to kill you or see you captured, not that Sonic expected anything less of a Robotnik territory. 

Of course, the obstacles were the least of Sonic’s worries at this point.  As he leaped up into the waiting mouth of yet _another_ stinking tube, his main worry made itself known from the inside his rucksack.  No warmth rippled from within it.  None of the emeralds stirred.  Sonic had been just about everywhere up and down in this dump, but there was no sign of another emerald lying in reach.

_And that means exactly what I think it means._

Robotnik had one of the Chaos Emeralds, which explained well enough why the scientist hadn’t returned for round two of his big “Off My Rocker” interrogation.  One emerald in the doctor’s hands was one too many, and Sonic knew better than to expect to stay alive once he had his hands on the others. 

 _It ain’t just to save my hide anymore, either,_ Sonic found himself admitting, as he rolled his way into the waiting mouth of another tube and surged on.  _If Robotnik manages to off me, then where’s that gonna leave the kid?_

He liked thinking on that about as much as he liked imagining where Tails was, what all he’d gone through, how scared the kid must have been.  Sonic couldn’t help thinking back to the meadow, where he’d first caught the kid playing pretend as he kicked and punched an imaginary Robotnik up and down the zone. 

_Probably not so brave now._

Sonic released a long, hard sigh.  “Just hang in there, kid,” he said as he came barreling out of another tube.  Thankfully, this one led to where he’d wanted to go, in lieu of rounding him either into a bed of spikes or back to the beginning.  “I dunno what I’m gonna do when I get there, but I’ll come up with something.”

_But what?_

The rest of the zone seemed to blur around him, as his world closed like a tight fist to that very good question.  He had the other emeralds, but it wasn’t as if they’d given him much other than a card kept out of Robotnik’s hands.  Sure, the ol’ doc could probably find some nasty uses for them, but what help had they really given to Sonic’s side?

He barreled forward out of the pipe, falling on a waiting jump spring lodged in the rocky wall ahead of him.  Sailing up found him another spring that waited on the wall his opposite.  Jumping to the very top of the next plateau, Sonic had to etch a skid mark about ten feet long to keep from tumbling heck for leather down a V shaped incline, right into a nest of spikes that waited.

If he’d kept his speed, he’d have been dead for certain. 

Sonic very much doubted it was an accident of nature.

“Kuh,” Sonic scoffed, shaking his head.  “Real nice trick, 'Buttnik.  Real cute.”

Jumping over that lovely little junction, he hit another jump spring and flew farther up.  In the darkness of night in the shadow of the huge mountains farther north, it was difficult even for him to see exactly where he was going, making the path that much more treacherous. 

_One wrong move.  One wrong move, that’s all it takes._

When he found a platform resting beneath the mouth of another tube, Sonic had a hunch that everything was coming to a head.  Either Robotnik would try to spring his trap while he was right there in that tube, or he would have something nasty waiting on the other side.  Either way, he knew well enough it wouldn’t be a pleasant exchange.  Not in this universe.

“Here I come, ‘Buttnik.  Ready or not!” 

Emerging from the mouth of the pipe found Sonic corrected, as he landed nimbly on another grassy plateau.

The hedgehog wasn’t ready for what he saw.  Not in the least.

 

Sonic didn’t recognize the other figure at first, sprawled and beaten flat on the ground.  He could see blood splotched over golden fur, their head crooked on their elbow, right eye sporting a fresh shiner as dark as a plum.  It wasn’t grim yet, but it was far from pretty.  Nothing seemed broken from where he stood, but Sonic knew that didn’t mean much unless they were in the hands of a medic. 

“ _Ray!_ ”  He tore across the short distance, where the squirrel was limp and barely clinging to consciousness.  “Ray, what the heck?!  What’re ya doin’ here?!”  Sonic pried his hands beneath Ray’s upper arms, hoping to somehow haul the squirrel back to his feet.  “What happened?!  C’mon, man, talk to me!” 

“What the… Sonic?”  Ray struggled to open his eyes.  The right eye was next to swollen shut.  “That you, man…?”

“Sure ain’t the tooth fairy,” Sonic said as he twisted Ray around to better look at him.  “What the heck happened to ya?  What’re you even doin’ here?” 

Ray chuckled weakly.  “Guess this is what I get for cuttin’ on ahead, huh?”

“How bad does it hurt?”  Sonic threw down his pack, reaching in and already rummaging.  There was an old roll of gauze, and he picked out a couple of fresh comarrow leaves leftover from Tails’ remedy.  If he could get a fire going and find a pair of flat enough rocks, he could make a decent salve.  “Ya think anything’s broken?”

“Nah…”  Ray shook his head in what looked like a burst of determination.  “Ankle hurts, but… I can walk on it.  Walked here, anyway.  Heh, or limped, I guess is the more technical term for it.  Even then, I’m still…  I’m not sure I lost it.”

Sonic glared at the scattered foothills ahead, in the direction he could only assume Ray had come limping from.  He couldn’t see or hear anything, but he knew in his bones it was only a matter of time.  “Lost _what,_ Ray?” he asked, trying not to sound impatient.  “You’re gonna have to A-to-Z me on this one, fly-boy.  I wasn’t here when whatever messed you up caught ya.”

Grunting, Ray pushed himself free of the hedgehog’s grasp to sit upright on his own.  He wobbled for a couple seconds, then seemed to catch his bearings.  “Okay,” he murmured.  “A to Z.  I came here ahead of ya, because I wanted to… well, I mean…”  Ray furrowed his brows.  “You ought’a know why I came out here, Sonic.  I came out here because…!” 

Sonic sighed as the pieces fell together.  “Man, Ray.”

“It was kinda dumb, huh?”

“Not as dumb as _I_ was actin’ if you felt like you had to prove yourself,” Sonic said quietly, folding his arms.  “Look, man, this is a sign that I’m not doin’ something right if you came all the way out here and got your tail handed to ya just because–”

“Because you were right?” Ray cut across bitterly.  “Because you _were._ ” 

“Don’t give me that.  Look at yourself, you can barely move.”

“Told ya I was no hard case.”

“Ray.”

The squirrel buckled and groaned a bit, clutching at his head.  “Feels like I went head to head with…”  A sudden flash of apprehension quivered in Ray’s eyes.  “Sonic!  The thing I fought!  The thing I fought had it!  It had the last–”

A high blast of jets cut Ray off, prompting the two to look up.  

Sonic saw it come hovering down, kicking up clouds of smoke beneath its feet as it landed almost cautiously on a pair of orange metallic sneakers.  The creation that stood before him was as cold and ugly a mockery of his likeness as Robotnik could likely manage; silver plates nearly from head to toe, save for orange patches of armor. 

In the swoop of a glassy blue visor, a pair of red shutter irises flared. 

Hauling Ray back by his arms, Sonic kneeled in a quick second.  “Wait here,” he murmured before standing to face this new monstrosity head on.  “I’m guessin’ you’re here on orders from Robotnik.  And I’m also guessin’ those orders aren’t to make nice with a cooler blue hedgehog.  What do ya think, Tall, Dark and Ugly?  Am I right?”

The metal hedgehog tore off from its landing place, lunging straight for him.

Sonic doubled back and flipped out of its path.  He wasn’t too surprised to see the robot tuck itself in, leaping up at him like a little silver wrecking ball, but the impact still rocked him as it slammed into his spines.  Sonic flew a few yards back, landing on the balls of his feet just as ol’ Mecha Ugly landed his opposite. 

“Man, I know ugly is what Robotnik goes for most of the time, but you’re a _special_ kinda ugly.”

“Be careful, Sonic,” Ray warned him from where he was leaning against the rocky wall behind the pair.  “That thing’s ugly for sure, but it’s also got an emerald…!”

Sonic glanced at the squirrel, wide-eyed.  “You gotta be kidding!”

Mecha Ugly, as Sonic was now calling it, was already whistling right for him again.  It tucked itself into a ball and leaped, leaving Sonic no alternative but to jump up himself, spines sawing just to keep back the brunt of the hit.  Sonic came back down unscathed, but winded.  Now that Ray mentioned it, Sonic could _feel_ the wallop of that thing hitting much harder than any of Robotnik’s other big badniks so far.  Just staving it off felt like he was stopping a freight train. 

“So that’s his plan, huh?  Well, ‘Buttnik’s gonna be awful disappointed!”  Sonic broke into a sprint, spindashing a short distance before he felt himself crash right into Mecha Ugly’s stomach plating. 

Its red irises flickered, but it was otherwise sporting no worse than a dent in its underside. 

Before Sonic could charge again, Mecha Ugly took its own initiative as it tucked and rolled, barreling across the grass right for him.  Sonic jumped just in time to dodge the assault, but it only leaped up after him, still spinning madly and giving him no time to react.

He felt the air crash out of his lungs at the blow.  It was literally like being hit by solid concrete; he was sent careening back, arms flailing, the world vaulting around him as he hit the ground on his back and folded.

“Sonic!!”  Ray’s voice garbled from what sounded like the distance of another world.  “Sonic, watch out!!”

Sonic forced an eye open just in time to see a flitter of bright yellow. 

And then something, _something_ seemed to kaboom right into his jaw, as he flew back into a coughing heap.  The warm copper of blood pooled in his mouth.  Nothing felt cracked or broken, but opening his eyes found Sonic seeing the blink of a few stars as he forced himself to stand up. 

“ _Sonic!!_ ”  Ray shouted frantically.

Mecha Ugly was already on him again, trying to lash in another strike with that flare of yellow.  Instinct acted well on Sonic’s behalf, ducking him just in time to spy the serpentine curve of a cable whipping over his head.  A claw, he figured of the bright yellow flare, or some kind of weapon. 

Sonic wasted no time getting back momentum.  He curled into another spindash, picking up speed and traction to bring a second blow to his mechanical double. 

_Yes!_

The monstrosity crumpled a bit; Sonic could feel its joints tremble as it struggled to keep him from slicing through it completely.  Whatever stuff forged it, it was far tougher than Robotnik’s usual fare.

Again the mechanical hedgehog spun up into the air.  Sonic mirrored it, the better to keep it from bearing on him and seizing another advantage.  It once again struck his spines with bruising force, but it bounced off in a ricochet as wildly as a bullet before it forced itself to land.

Sonic rolled right after it and spun his way into a third strike.

“You give up yet, faker?” Sonic asked, before turning to spit a dollop of blood in the grass.  “’Cause you’re gonna have to do a lot better than that.  Maybe try lookin’ less ugly.  I mean, it’s not gonna help ya here, but it’s really somethin’ you should work on.”

Mecha Ugly said nothing.  It only threw him that vacant smile, an eerily soulless imitation of his own.

“All right.  Goin’ down swingin’ is what it’ll be!”  Sonic took off in yet another spindash with hopes for a fourth hit.

That proved a mistake, when he felt something small but blunt strike him upside his back.  It was hardly enough to deal any damage, but Sonic could feel himself veer slightly off-course.  Akin to a mine cart striking a penny on the track, it was enough.  He slanted left before he could right his direction, and by then, Mecha Ugly was on his tail.

Sonic saw the faint outline of the yellow claw for about half a second before he felt it club him across his left eye.  It knocked him clear out of his spindash, sending him spinning into the ground face first. 

_Come on, get up, get up, get up….!  Come on, get up, snap out of it, walk it off!_

Sonic stumbled back to his feet.  His eye was starting to swell shut already, rendering half the zone into a watery swirl. 

_Walk it off, Sonic!  Walk it off, come on!_

Mecha advanced on him again, this time with a blast of jets erupting out of the back of its feet.  Apparently it was hoping for velocity to finish what it had started.

Sonic began a spindash at full speed, bolting off to meet it halfway.  There was a grating crunch as his spines found purchase, and Sonic only needed to hear the crackle of sparks jouncing free of the thing’s casing to know the blow had struck home.

He didn’t see the claw swing for him, but rather he heard the cable whistle through the air like a bullwhip.  The hedgehog wheeled off quickly to dodge the blow, and by the time he was back on his feet again, the mech was already curled back into its protective ball. 

“C’mon, you can do better than that, can’t ya?” Sonic said, doing very well to hide a tremor of coming exhaustion.  Nothing but combat with next to no sleep in the past few days were catching him well, as nothing but sheer adrenaline kept the hedgehog going.

Mecha Ugly leaped for him again, flying at him with the drive and force of a cannonball. 

Having etched in the pattern of the thing’s attacks by now, Sonic acted in the split second he had.  He jumped up as a ball, himself, deflecting the mechanical double harmlessly across the field before he took off after it. 

 _Gotta finish it now,_ was the only coherent thought across Sonic’s mind then, as he dealt a fifth and a sixth blow in the deadliest round of predictions he’d ever played.  _Gotta finish it now, or it’s gonna finish me pretty quick!  And then Tails won’t…_

Unyielding images swept his mind. 

Cold, bleak.

Even in the flow of battle, he could see those big blue eyes staring desperately at him across the distance.

_Sonic!!  Sonic, help me!!_

The thing jetted at him again, claw out and lashing with force enough to crack a skull in two.  Sonic ducked the claw before he leaped up, though he felt the brush of it as it barely missed clipping his ankle before he landed on Mecha Ugly's other side. 

_Finish it now!!_

Another swing of that claw, and Sonic backflipped out of the way and landed in another spindash.  He felt the ground sputter up beneath him; he was going full speed on this one, with nothing but the impetus to finish the fight on his own terms.

Mecha Ugly sprang forward, jets flashing from its shoes again.

_Perfect!!_

Sonic actually shouted in his own pain as he surged right into it, slicing, sawing, cutting through material that lashed and bruised him right back.  He could _feel_ the thing’s materials twisting into his body.  A few seconds of this, and it became a question as to whether he was cutting it in half or if the thing was opening a new maw to chew him up before wolfing him down. 

An array of white and blue sparks erupted, leaving Sonic flopping down on his side just as he tore through the mechanical double’s torso.  Rolling onto his back, he saw the gripper’s cable loop like bright silver cursive across the sky before it flew off to who knows where.  He squinted, the better to shield his eyes as the mech exploded and choked the air with a hailstorm of bolts and the stench of singed metal. 

Panting, Sonic pushed himself back up after what seemed like an eternity had passed.  Mecha Ugly burned nicely as a pile of rubble at the quickster’s feet.

Ray was sitting straight up against the rocks, beholding the spectacle as if he’d seen a ghost.

“I didn’t pass out again, did I?” Sonic mumbled blearily, rubbing at his aching head. 

“No,” Ray replied quietly.  He shook his head, as if he still couldn’t believe his eyes.  “Sonic, I gotta admit… that was pretty choice.”

Sonic laughed, stumbling a bit towards the wreckage.  “Not sure I’d call anything about that badnik pretty,” he said.  “Well… except maybe this…” 

Kneeling by the remains of Mecha Ugly, Sonic worked with the careful precision of a surgeon as he shifted the flaming clutter.  He’d made a royal mess out of this one, rightly so, it served Robotnik right for even conceiving of such a thing without the courtesy of picking a cooler color.  Or even conceiving such a creation, _period._

Even with the score settled, Sonic was sure he’d be putting an active effort to wipe that cold, unflinching _smile_ from his memories. 

Having caught his breath and some needed rest, Ray limped over to the other side of the mess.  “You need any help?”

“Nah.  Pretty sure this is… yeah, that’s it!” 

Sonic’s hand retreated from the mech’s remains with his desired prize.  In the palm of his hand, streaked in a thin sheen of oil, the green Chaos Emerald shone like an eye of jade fire.  He beheld it with the awe of one hopelessly spellbound, staring through the glimmer into the pulsing heart of the gem as it picked up the presence of the other emeralds.  Almost humbled by it, Sonic could only stand there faintly believing that this ended his quest. 

This ended his quest for all of them.  Somehow, he had done it. 

In two days, no less. 

“That’s it, isn’t it?” Ray asked in a hushed tone, scuffling up closer.  “That’s the last one, _numero seis_ … right?”        

Sonic nodded.  “That’s… yeah.  Yeah, that’s it.”  His fingers tightened around the jewel’s edges.  “Tch.  So much for our _deal._   I don’t see Tails anywhere, do you?”

“Don’t tell me you expected anything less from Robotnik, of all people,” Ray said flatly. 

“Nah.  This is _exactly_ what I expected.  Saw it comin’ since Green Hills.”

“What’re we gonna do?” Ray asked.  “You might have all the emeralds now, but he’s still got the kid.”

Sonic glanced at him critically.  “Uh-uh.  There’s no ‘we’ in this, Ray.  Not from here.”

Hurt flashed in the squirrel’s eyes.  “C’mon, Sonic, I know I might have been useless with _this_ thing, but–”

“That’s not it,” Sonic cut in almost fiercely.  Seeing Ray recoil a little, he cleared his throat and started again.  “That’s not it, Ray.  It ain’t about you bein’ useful.”

“If the rest of the resistance can’t back you up, then… what?” Ray spat, ears flattening.  “You go in alone again?  Take on Robotnik again?  Knock him over again?  Feelin’ like nobody’s got your back the whole time?”

“I was bein’ _dumb_ when I said that stuff,” Sonic said, admitting the truth to himself as much as he was to Ray, the bitter pill it was to swallow.  “I was just… I was just mad, I wasn’t thinkin’ straight.  You’ve been plenty of help already.”

Ray glared at him.  “Name one thing you couldn’t have handled on your own this whole time.”

“Freezing to death,” came the easy reply, as Sonic chanced his friend a dry smile.  “Or did you forget already?  If you hadn’t tailed me up into that storm, I wouldn’t even _be_ here.  Which makes all that stuff I said back there that much _dumber._ ”

He was met by a brief silence.  Ray looked about restlessly, fumbling for some begotten argument, but Sonic knew he had him pinned.  He knew the score now, the same as he’d known the stupid risk he was taking with the glider while leaping off into the storm winds over the canyon anyway.  It would have been the last chance he’d ever taken.  Or even worse, it would have been Tails’ final chance shot to pieces.

That was the whole point. 

Tails needed him now, and Sonic was done with the stupid risks.    

“Listen,” Sonic said, resting a hand on Ray’s shoulder.  “You got any way of contacting folks from the resistance around here?  Is there a place you can get to?”

“Got my communicator in my scarf,” Ray replied.  “But Sonic, c’mon, you can’t just go on alone!  I can’t let you do this!”

“Unless you can keep up on that bad leg of yours?  You’re just gonna have to trust me on this one, pal.”

“No way!”

“Ray, c’mon.”  Sonic nudged his arm with a fist, grinning.  He could only hope that it looked convincing enough, resolute enough to hide the light quake of his nerves behind it all.  “You trusted me to handle myself back in Aqua Lake, didn’t ya?”

“That was _Aqua Lake,_ this is _Robotnik!_ ” Ray exploded, torn, furious.  “Robotnik’s in a whole different league than a few feet of water and some spikes, for crying out loud!!”

“Done it once, I can do it again,” Sonic said.  He held up a hand before Ray could bust in with another argument.  “Ray, between me and you and Mighty, you were the smart guy between us.  You always have been, everyone knows that.  So stop arguin’ and actually _think_ about this.  Are you gonna be able to take on Robotnik on that leg?”

Ray snapped his mouth shut.  He slouched in coming exhaustion down to his good knee, still angry, but defeated nevertheless.  A long silence hung between them, as Sonic tossed the green emerald in his palm up and down and awaited an answer he didn’t bother anticipating.  It was an answer he knew wasn’t coming.

The mechanical lights of Scrambled Egg Zone twinkled around them.

“I’ll call for help,” Ray finally said, when everything else failed him.  “They’ll be able to trace me the second I call.”

Sonic nodded and extended his fist.  “All right.  I’ll see ya when Robotnik’s outta commission.”

“Just promise me you won’t do anything stupid,” Ray pressed, narrowing his eyes even as he bumped Sonic’s fist back with his own.  “For the kid’s sake, Sonic.  He’s counting on you.”

Another nod, this one decidedly more solemn as Sonic’s smile vanished.  “Nothin’ stupid.  For Tails’ sake.”

“Go on, then.”  Ray waved him off.  He folded back on his rear end, the last of his regained strength appearing rightly spent.  “Skedaddle, quill head.  You’re wastin’ time.”

“So long.  And… thanks, Ray.  Thanks for everything.”

Sonic leaped up the marbled slant into the foothills that would take him farther northwest.  He imagined he only had a couple hours left in him before he’d have to stop for the night; his body protested by every inch, from his still aching head to his now throbbing legs.  The weight of the past two days and Tails’ frantic face in his mind bore down as hard as an ocean wave, seeking to haul him like stones chained to his feet.

_But I’m on my way, Tails._

The thought clung like a snowflake on dark glass.  It clung and stood out in his mind, a bright and resilient point that drove him farther still up the other side of the mountain.  He may not have known exactly where Robotnik’s next base lied, but he had plenty of incentive in his satchel right now for Robotnik to come find _him._ If he found Robotnik, he’d find Tails. 

_Hang in there, bud.  I’m on my way._

From this point, he could only hope to see the end of all this soon.

 


	13. Crystal Egg Zone

_“Tails!  Tails, where are you, pal?!”_

_Sonic cupped his hand around his ear, pricking it to the chilly wind that rose from the cavern below.  No answer.  There was silence, there was the silty musk of wet rock and earth, and if he squinted, Sonic could see for himself that there was the distinctive twinkle of purple gemstones.  It was one long tunnel among many, more than likely another excavation effort by Robotnik’s goons._

Go on.

 _The hedgehog faltered, caught in the split second before he tore off into the depths of the tunnel.  He didn’t hear the voice, no, he didn’t_ hear _the words, as much as he_ felt _them.  They rang inside him like a strange flash of intuition, what had Mighty called it…?_

_Déjà vu, that was it._

_It was a profound feeling of familiarity, almost like the comforts of home.  Which was weird enough, because Sonic was pretty darn sure he’d never_ been _to a zone like this, he’d never seen this place…_

Go on. 

_“Whatever ya say,” Sonic muttered, running into the enormous mouth of the slanting tunnel.  “Long as ya help me find my pal.”_

_The zone beyond the threshold fell into the swells of an eerie purple light.  Sonic could see the faceted outcroppings of purple gemstones embedded in the cavern walls, and through the light they gave, he could see the intentional arcs and pathways of further refined architecture.  The path was paved in sleek sheets of pale green stone, and the tunnels were held true by pleated pillars etched from lilac colored rock.  Every surface had strange sigils tattooed in, some sort of language that Sonic couldn’t translate.  Gibberish, as far as he knew.  But the more Sonic saw of this place as he ran in, his original theory of Robotnik’s interference ebbed away._

_Robotnik hadn’t touched this place, that much Sonic knew._

_This place was sacred ground, that much Sonic also knew._

_He couldn’t explain it as he ran along the path, climbing up a narrow flight of steps, but Sonic had been ingrained with that knowledge.  It feathered along his mind, phantom knowledge, that weird déjà vu feeling cranked up to twenty and busting the dial._

_“What is this place…?” Sonic muttered, mounting the top step._

_No answer, but Sonic half expected he’d have to get used to that._

_He was surprised to find a red jump spring embedded in the wall.  Launching himself off of it, he sped onward until he caught sight of a yellow spring that sent him flying over a small bed of spikes.  Flipping over them, he landed on the balls of his feet and pressed on, deeper into that dreamy blend of darkness and flowery purple light._

Been here before.

 _“Uh, yeah, pretty sure I’d remember_ this _place,” Sonic replied flatly before he caught himself and shook his head.  “And now I’m talkin’ to myself.  I gotta be losin’ it.  I gotta find Tails…!”_

 _He bolted on, picking up speed that found him snapping like a storm wind down a corridor that was oddly narrow, considering the rest of the place.  Sonic kept his eyes peeled, unsatisfied.  He’d come into this place expecting badniks around every turn, a trap, one of Robotnik’s mechanical lieutenants,_ something, _but so far he’d been all alone.  It was that realization that underlined just what it was about this place that bothered him so much._

_Sonic was completely alone, here._

_Alone, except—_

Come here.

_“I’m comin’, I’m comin’,” Sonic grumbled, planting his heels to bring himself to a jolted stop near the corridor’s end.  What lied in the antechamber that opened up to him was… he wasn’t sure how to go about describing it._

_Sonic had never seen anything like it.  It looked like a large fuchsia globe about the size of his own head, bound in perfect iron rings atop a green pedestal.  The hedgehog circled it a time or two, scratching at his head, trying to puzzle out what must have been so special about it._

_Was something supposed to go on top of it?  Like an offering?_

_“Maybe if I just…”_

_Sonic reached out with a cautious hand, resting it on the globe’s polished surface._

_The globe hummed to life, a white fire burning so brightly within that it nearly blinded him.  He could feel the air crackle around him the way he could feel lightning about to strike if he didn’t move it.  And he was about to leap back.  He was about to throw himself backward, and then—_

Sonic’s eyes flew open, and all he saw was the near pitch blackness of the cave he’d fallen asleep in.  The melodic voice he’d felt instead of heard was nowhere to be found, now.  Every trace of that strange altar had vanished, and sitting up, Sonic couldn’t hope to trace it back in his memory even through the darkness.  Not that it mattered.  Weird dreams didn’t get anything done.

_Still, though… what a mondo weird one.  That one’s gotta go down in the books._

His body was exhausted, but his mind was more awake and keen than it had ever been, and he didn’t dare risk drifting off again on the odds that he’d sleep through the day.  Sonic didn’t want to get up.  Every inch of him ached, screamed against the very idea of moving, but he forced himself up steadily.  His legs quivered like soft jelly beneath him, but he buckled and urged strength back into them.

“Heh.  Another day, another badnik’s butt to kick.  Ow…” 

_No weird dream-voice to help me outta this one._

Sonic stretched in cautious strides, emerging from a small concave entrance dented into the northern front of the mountain.

The zone sprawled over the far horizon nearly blinded him in the coming sunlight.

In the pink and orange light of dawn, there was a near endless expanse of flawless crystal, hulking blocks of it that loomed stories high in translucent towers, wound off into tunnels that bolted up and down sharp ledges.  It was an entire city that caught the day like flame beneath glass.  Shielding his eyes, Sonic could peer across the distance and see soft pink pipes running like petrified veins throughout.  He could also make out construction and mining equipment craned over the entire thing, hunched like the necks of scuffed green monsters all bearing Robotnik’s insignia.  It was the very picture of ruthless efficiency.  No streams, no trees, not even a wisp of grass.  There was no sign of the Crystal Valley Zone that had once been here, not a single trace.  Robotnik had conquered and taken this zone to his liking, fantastically. 

Scoping out the northeastern path ahead, Sonic could see the iron plated billboard standing about twenty feet tall.

_Crystal Egg Zone._

“Puh.”  Sonic rolled his eyes, folding his arms.  “Guess I’ve found the right place, at least.  Ol’ ‘Buttnik’s never gonna get creative with these names, is he?”

He started down the mountainside at about a seventy mile per hour trot, trying not to wince at the near liquid burning that flooded his joints.  Sonic was used to going strong far longer than others around him, but it was next to two straight days’ worth of strong, now.  Two straight days’ worth of strong on a little less than ten hours of sleep. 

Not that it mattered.  He was wide awake as they came, when the patches of grass and bald rock finally gave way to a threshold of crystal that slid almost like ice beneath his sneakers.  Disgust rang through him from that first step and onward.  Crystal Valley had once been a beautiful place, where the ice that melted in the spring would run in clear eddies down cliffs of white granite, etching them full of tiny rivers that convened at a pond so clean you could see the pebbles near the bottom.  It had been the peaceful retreat of spiritual types for decades, hailed as one of the few remaining examples of virgin nature itself. 

Of _course_ Robotnik had targeted it.

Sonic shook his head as he took off down the first incline, grabbing a few power rings for good measure before he leaped over a bed of spikes to the next ledge. 

Oddly enough, he could see the resident badniks of the zone stirring at his presence already.  Not that this was the strange part, mind.  No, the strange part had to be the fact that they were… floating mechanical fish. 

“Man, am I sure I’m not still dreamin’?”

Sonic could guess it was what remained of the fish that once resided in the Crystal Pond.  What else would there be, if not mechanical mockeries of what once was?

But still, seeing them floating against the morning sky was a bit disconcerting.

It was about as strange as Sonic was willing to allow, jumping up and smashing a couple of them.  They came apart as easily as any other bot.  A feral pair of doves cooed gratefully before taking fast wing, surprising the hedgehog yet again. 

Robotnik’s eccentricity knew no bounds.

_Neither does the beating I’m gonna hand him._

Sonic spun into a midair flip and landed on the next block of crystal over, only to have the entire thing crumple almost like a cookie under his weight.  “ _Whoa…!_ ”  He threw out his arms, swaying this way and that over the bed of spikes that waited below.  Thankfully the crystal underneath the surface was made of sterner stuff, allowing him to reclaim his balance.  “Okay.  Not cool, man.  Not cool.”

From where he stood, he was able to spot the next fragile block of crystal right off the bat, next to him.  Now that he’d slowed a bit, he could see the top of it had given to a spider’s web of hairline fractures.  Beaten down by careless hauling or the elements, Sonic couldn’t say which.

But he could plainly see the jump spring trapped underneath that battered surface.

Smirking, he jumped and tromped down through the top of the next block as if he were coming down on thin ice.  It came apart with a resounding crack, and Sonic felt a dip of air beneath him, and then he was being propelled up into the air through a spinning column of rings up to the next ledge.

He would have to be careful, but he’d manage.

_I’m on my way._

That thought alone kept him going up the next ledge, running low on the balls of his feet to keep from sliding. 

_I’m on my way._

The sun rose, and the clock kept right on ticking.

About halfway through, Sonic began to suspect that Robotnik had been baiting him with this zone after all.  A near mishap on a jump spring that would have found him skewered on some rather _conveniently_ occurring spikes in the crystal above led him to that conclusion rather nicely.  The whole thing had been intended as a death trap.  After the defeat of ol’ Mech and Ugly, it _had_ to be.

Not that Sonic was complaining, of course.

If Robotnik wanted to take the fight here, he was more than ready and he had exactly what Robotnik wanted.  Too much of what Robotnik wanted for the old psycho to resist a face to face confrontation, as a matter of fact.

_Just gotta…. Hold up._

Sonic skidded to a stop on the crystal rooftop he was running on.  He stopped short of yet another bed of spikes, looking up at some sort of… jellyfish, hobbling through the air.  Weird, but nothing he didn’t expect by this point.  Scooting up as close to the edge as he could get, he looked harder and found that it wasn’t so much a jellyfish as much as it was some kind of… jelly ball.  Something like a cell, with a springy looking gel hanging around a bright blue core that swiveled inside it like a giant eye. 

“I don’t even wanna know what Robotnik was thinkin’, designing that.” 

It was joined by a pair of others like it, and he was struck by familiar inspiration from Gimmick Mountain.  They looked somewhat like the ventilation fans, and if he could roll over the surface at the right speed…

…it was a chance he would have to take.

Sonic jumped, curling into a spindash that caught his quills a scant few inches into the gel around that hovering eye.  He stuck, much to his relief, and began to saw his way in a neat path around it.  Extending his spines at that velocity thankfully didn’t find him stuck in the gel wholesale, as much as he went about his way faster, faster, faster still. 

He grinned.  It was working!  Just like the fans back at Gimmick Mountain! 

The soft blue sky rolled in and out of his vision like a wave. 

_Just a matter of timing… gotta time it just right…!_

When the sky had receded back above him, Sonic kicked out his feet and sprang.  He sailed straight up, catching his spines on the gel of the next ball that waited, circling it with another spindash.  Second verse same as the first, he spun until the sky had receded and launched himself like a pinball to the waiting ledge far above. 

“Nailed it!  Am I good, or what?” 

That wasn’t even a question, so he didn’t even stick around to answer it himself.

“I’ll have Robotnik say it once I get to ‘em,” Sonic promised himself, as he took off into a harrowing tunnel, woven by wind and age into the small mountain of crystal dead ahead.  It glittered in chipped orange and pink all around him, so brightly he had to squint to force his way through.  “A left turn here, a jump here…!” 

A left turn and a jump later found him at another winding twist, another turn. 

Right.

Left.

Right.

Jump.

Farther down the tunnel still, and Sonic lost track of the junctions and loops as he seemingly chased daylight to the other side that wouldn’t come.  Furrowing his brows, he sped up and kicked on.  It was a regular labyrinth through this neck of the woods, but the other end had to be here somewhere, didn’t it?  As he descended another slope of perfect glass, he figured not even Robotnik would create something so convoluted to depend on getting around. 

He contemplated turning back, but to what point?  No landmarks meant that every which way looked the exact same.

“I ain’t lost,” Sonic firmly decided for himself as he tore off in another junction.  “I ain’t lost, because I gotta get through.  I’m not gonna be stuck wandering around _this_ mess all day.  I got a big, fat egg to fry.”

_And I gotta get to Tails._

_Sonic!!  Sonic, help me!!_

That by itself was enough to drum him along, one step after another.

 

To say Robotnik was furious was a kindly vast simplification.

He barely heard his coffee mug crash into pieces against the cold iron wall across the chamber.  He barely heard anything at all over the low grind of his teeth, the pulse of his slavering hate as it thundered through him like a heart attack.  As Silver Sonic burned away on his Scrambled Egg surveillance feed, the hate pounded behind his eyes.  It poured a trickling coldness so deep it burned in his chest.    

 _Hated_ that hedgehog?

A safe bet to make, yes.

Regardless, Robotnik kept his breath even and glowered over the crooked tent of his fingers.  It was all he could do to keep from hammering into his own machinery, all the while his _beautiful_ creation, his beautiful _perfect_ creation smoldered into _nothing._ Smoldered into _waste._ Perhaps some part of him would have been disappointed if Sonic hadn’t risen to the challenge.  In fact, some part of him would have felt a bit cheated that a mere copy had been all it took to rid himself of that little blue nuisance, and yet…

Cold, metallic perfection, _ruined._

All of that beautiful efficiency, that sophisticated mind fixed on function and purpose?  That beautiful mind, devoid of useless emotions and resistance?  _Gone._ Obliterated now, all the while that _pest_ hopped and sped around and made _jokes_ out of his innovations _._ Somehow, some way, this _inferior_ being kept _destroying_ what Robotnik held so close to his core: the logical next step in evolution. 

He would make it so, no matter what it took.  This world was one rich with possibility, if it could just do away with the clutter of all these ecosystems, all this useless greenery, these soft creatures that let their emotions get in the way.

And if this world happened to need _him_ as the one with the vast intellect to guide them all in the right direction?  Well, so be it.  It wasn’t a position he sought with any sort of reluctance, obviously.

But moments like these found Robotnik taking needed time to cool his blood, to draw back from the ferocity that sometimes almost startled even him.  He couldn’t simply attack the hedgehog head on, no.  He’d learned a few things from the Final Zone, or what was _supposed_ to be the Final Zone, anyway.  Sonic was an opponent well worth approaching with extreme caution.

“Hm.”

An increment more calm, now, he drew a hand to his console and drummed his fingers pensively along its edge. 

“It’ll have to be a little more drastic than last time, won’t it, Sonic?”  Robotnik was quick to switch feeds, getting a beat on Sonic fairly easily.  He was surging through the Crystal Egg Zone at a fair clip, nothing he didn’t expect.  “Something a bit more… _challenging._ ”

Truthfully, he didn’t even want to see Sonic captured and roboticized anymore. 

Yes, the idea had once held an indulgent appeal to him.  It would have been his best roboticization yet; Sonic would have been a flawless creation, deadly to combine efficiency with all that speed.  It would have been the best trophy that ever walked the Green Hill Zone, his greatest prize, to watch his mortal enemy at soulless work against that pesky resistance.  And Sonic would have been at _his_ beck and call, no less.  Wouldn’t that appeal to anyone?

Oh, but the thought didn’t quite charm Robotnik the way it used to, no.  Not now.

Now he just wanted him _gone._

A swipe of his arm, and his desk was cleared.  His mug of coffee crashed into pieces, a cup’s worth of pens scattered.  Robotnik was already tugging out a fresh leaf of butcher’s paper, his hands working crazily, the pen in his right hand drawing out lines in a fervor he was too familiar with.  This is how it had been.  The early evening before Sonic’s arrival to the Final Zone, he had been drawing up plans in the frantic rush he found himself in, now.  Adrenaline had sweat popping across his bald head, dripping down over his glasses. 

“If he can’t move around, he can’t get out _alive._ ” 

He wanted him _gone._

“Flamethrowers here, perhaps… no.  No, far too much of a hazard.” 

His pen scratched the idea and his mind raced forward.

“Bladed chains here?  Hm.  No.  No, not enough time to secure them in place…”

It was a problem, he would admit.  There were simply so many ideas, but not enough time to implement them in a way that was practical, or at least, a way that didn’t risk him in the process.  Even now, the ideas that were running with some leeway in his mind had risks of their own, but Robotnik found himself caring less and less. 

Perhaps they’d simply been fated this way.  If one fell, the other did, too.  It seemed like the sort of rotten trick fate would have played, had Robotnik ever invested belief in such a thing.

_No matter._

Because he wanted him _gone._

“Electricity.  Hm…”  His mouth curled into a near feral grin beneath his mustache.  To cripple that hedgehog right before wiping him off the face of the planet…  To clip his wings, so to speak, now _there_ was an idea. 

Robotnik grinned wider at another idea, a _hideous_ idea that gurgled through his mind like a bubble of swamp water the more he turned it over.  Seeing as how that _deal_ he’d struck with Sonic wasn’t likely a factor in this little game, anymore, well…  that certainly left the fox brat as fair game, didn’t it?  Fair game for roboticization; the kit would make a fine buzzbomber, at any rate.  Or heck, maybe he warranted a specialized unit all his own. 

“Wouldn’t it be something if your little fox friend dealt you the final blow, my young friend?  That would be a lesson for anyone in the resistance, I should wonder.” Robotnik couldn’t help the chuckle that followed if he tried.  The scientist supposed, through his brilliance that ran as coldly as his machines, that he was a bit of a poet in his heart.  A morbid sort of poet that enjoyed its share of cruel endings, but a poet nonetheless. 

He got up calmly from his chair, ignoring the whiny creak it gave upon being freed from his weight.  Thumbing a button over his intercom, he gave a single order that would set things in motion: 

“Grounder Units 72 and 77, go get the brat in holding cell C-8 and prepare him at R-Station 9.  I think it’s time we got more use out of our little friend, don’t you?”

Not that either unit could disagree or even hope to respond.

Still, Robotnik would take up conversation wherever he could.  Maybe there would be time enough to come back to HQ and see the fox’s last moments of freedom, before sending him through the teleporter to finish he job. 

The surge of elation this thought brought him, he knew, would make all of this planning worth it before closing his fingers around all six Chaos Emeralds.

“Hurry on through, hedgehog,” Robotnik hissed, grin reaching for his eyes.  “We’ll be _waiting_.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> sorry for the bit of delay on this one folks! but i'm'a do my best to make the next chapter really worth it!!


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